Today, we are excited to share not one, but TWO amazing recipes by The Happy Pear: a savoury delight and a sweet treat. These recipes appear in our Autumn 2019 issue. Check them out below!
Culinary Comfort
Recipes to bring warmth to your heart
As colder days draw in, we’re all looking for a spot of comfort food to bring some peace to our hearts. This chickpea and mushroom curry from the lovely folks at The Happy Pear ought to do the trick … followed by a scrumptious sticky toffee pudding for dessert!
Chickpea Curry (low FODMAP, as part of The Happy Pear’s ‘Happy Gut’ online course)
Serves 4/takes around 15 minutes to make
Ingredients:
a thumb-size piece of ginger, 15g
½ a red chilli
1 aubergine
1.5 tbsp oil
3 tbsp tamari
5 tbsp water
160g tinned of chickpea
250g oyster mushrooms
2 tbsp curry powder
a small bunch of fresh coriander/basil/chives
160g tin of coconut milk
x1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp black pepper
Instructions:
- Peel and finely chop the ginger. Remove the end off the chilli (and if you don’t like it spicy, remove the seeds too) and finely chop.
- Finely chop the aubergine into small pieces (we like using a serrated knife as it chops aubergine easiest). Finely chop the oyster mushrooms.
- Put a large saucepan on a high heat and add the oil and leave it to heat up for a minute. Add the chilli and the ginger and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the oyster mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the aubergines and cook for 2 minutes stirring regularly. Add the tamari and cook for a further 2 minutes, continuing to stir well, so that all the aubergine and mushrooms get infused with the lovely tamari flavour. Now add the 5 tablespoons of water and cook stirring regularly until the aubergine becomes soft and cooked.
- In the meantime, drain and rinse the chickpeas thoroughly. Roughly chop the coriander/basil/chives and set aside.
- Then add all the remaining ingredients into the pan and cook for 5 minutes, when it boils, then reduce to a simmer.
- Remove from the heat, taste and adjust the seasoning to your pallet. Garnish each serving with some chopped coriander/basil/chives and if you like it spicy, additional chilli flakes go great as a topping, too. Then enjoy!
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Serves 4-6 people/takes approx 1 hour to make, including cooling time
This is a lovely, easy take on the classic steamed date pudding. The coconut toffee is delicious and adds a wonderful earthy sweetness. It has its own treacle-like flavour that is typical of this cake and compliments the pudding in a lovely way. Best served warm with your favourite vanilla ice cream of choice, with lots of the toffee drizzled over the top.
Pudding
200g pitted dates, chopped
150ml of boiling water
75g sunflower oil
2 tbsp molasses or treacle
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g coconut sugar
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
6 tbsp water
150g white flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
50 ml of rice milk or plant-based milk of choice
Toffee
250g coconut sugar
1 full fat can of coconut milk
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Chop the dates into small pieces, ensuring there are no hidden stones in the middle.
- In a bowl, pour the boiling water over the dates and leave to sit.
- Make 2 flax eggs by mixing together the ground flax seeds and the water in a mug: mix well and leave to sit for 5 mins.
- In another bowl, add the sunflower oil, vanilla extract, milk and molasses and mix until homogenous.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl.
- In a food processor, blend the dates and water till you reach a smooth, caramel-like texture.
- Make a well in the middle and mix in the flax eggs, the date mixture and the sunflower and molasses. Mix until well combined.
- Line a baking tray approx 34cm (13 inches) x 34cm (13 inches) with baking parchment and pour in the cake batter.
- Level out and put in the oven to bake at 180 for 30 mins
While the cake is baking in the oven, you will have time to make the coconut toffee!
- Place the coconut sugar into a large bottomed pot on high heat, and using a whisk, stir continuously to avoid any of the sugar catching to the bottom and burning.
- After approx 3-4 minutes, the sugar should start to clump together and then dissolve.
- Once it has started to dissolve, gently add the coconut cream from the top of the can of coconut. Be careful not to add any of the water – just the cream from the top of the can.
- Continue to heat and stir until the mixture has become lovely and smooth. Once smooth, turn off the heat and leave to one side.
Take the cake out of the oven and leave it to cool. Once it has cooled, add 1/4 of the toffee mixture on top of the cake to give it a glaze, and keep the remaining 3/4 to serve on top of the ice cream with the pudding.
Cut into brownie-shaped pieces and serve with dairy-free vanilla ice cream, with hot toffee poured on top. Enjoy!
