Category Archives: Dinners

Spinach & Potato Buckwheat Burgers 🌿

We love making our own homemade burgers, we’ve made experiments galore! Here’s one we particularly enjoyed for you to have a go and explore! 

Ingredients:

  • 2 handfuls of washed fresh spinach leaves 
  • 1/2 red pepper washed and chopped
  • 3 fresh garlic cloves 
  • 1/2 white onion peeled & diced
  • 1/4 cup of buckwheat flour 
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 
  • 2-3 tsps dried chopped mint, 
  • 2-3 tsps dried chopped basil, 
  • 2-3 tsps dried chopped thyme, 
  • A generous pinch of Maldon salt
  • Ground pepper 
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Add the spinach, onion, garlic, pepper and some water to blend…

Pulse for a few seconds, this is the kind of mixture your aiming for in the end…

Steam your potatoes and mash until fluffy – oh this part is such fun!

Then add all the herbs and seasonings each and every one!
Pour in now, the spinach, pepper, onion and garlic mixture too;And stir and mash again until the mix is completely green right through!    Now add the flour which will make the mixture thicker,

Then create your burgers, perhaps using a press like this will be much quicker!    Drizzle the tops with olive oil which will give them that extra crunch…  

And bake for 30 minutes one side and 30 minutes on the other and they’ll be soon be ready for your dinner or lunch! 👌       

Buckwheat Flour & Potato Gnocchi 

Ladies and gentlemen here’s another delicious simple recipe for you to create…

…you’ll soon be making your own gnocchi at a speedy efficient rate!

 Ingredients

  • Some peeled and diced chopped potatoes
  • 1 cup of Buckwheat Flour 

Steam potatoes until soft enough to mash through…  

Then use a fork, masher or ricer to soften – don’t use a blender whatever you do! Here’s the final result fluffy, silky and smooth:  
You can add any seasonings at this point if you’re in a real culinary groove 😉  

Then measure out one cup of buckwheat flour ready to pour…  

…into your mixing bowl and make a hole in the centre for…   

…your fluffy potato, add to the centre in a ball……and knead the flour into the potato here’s what it should look like in all…  
Roll the dough into little round balls just like so…  

  …and place them in a pan of boiling water, and when they’re ready how will you know?

Because in a minute or two they’ll rise up to the top! And that’s when you take them out so the cooking will stop!

Then serve warm with your favourite sauce, we used tomato as you can see here…    

After this delicious meal you’ll soon be in good cheer!   

Red Pepper & Onion Quinoa Balls

Ladies and Gentlemen these Quinoa Balls are a delicious bite to eat! Round and scrumptious and so beautifully neat!

Ingredients

  • A bowl of cooked quinoa
  • Half an onion diced
  • Half a red pepper diced
  • Salt/pepper to taste
  • Coconut oil for frying 
  • Basil or other seasoning of choice 

Fry your onions and shiny pepper red…

  

…Add and mix with salt, pepper and basil in their fluffy quinoa bed.  

Use your hands to roll a handful of mixture into a neat and round ball…  

…And whilst preparing do your very best not to eat them all! 😊😉Serve with salad and enjoy your round burst of protein!

  

A meal fit for any Quinoa King or Queen! 👑     

Mint, Red Onion, Carrot and Mashed Potato Baked Balls

Ingredients

  • 1 large baking potato (or several little potatoes) 
  • Approximately 6-8 carrots. Though any number would be fine.
  • 3 tsp Dried chopped basil 
  • 1 tbsp Dried chopped mint
  • 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • Salt/pepper to taste 
  • Olive Oil (optional)
  • Ice Cream Scoop

 Peel, chop and steam your potatoes and carrots until soft. Ours usually take 30 minutes  

Place your steamed vegetables in a bowl with mint, basil, sliced garlic cloves and salt and pepper.  

Finely dice your red onion…  

Mash together and stir in the onion. Do not use a blender the potatoes will become all gluey!   Then fill an ice cream scoop with the mixture .

  

And place the balls on a baking sheet or oven tray.  

We added a little olive oil for extra crispness however this is optional. You could omit the added oil if using a non-stick tray.    

If you’re placing the balls in a stone pan however it is recommended to use a little oil so the balls do not stick to the bottom of the pan.    

Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on how crispy you like them!

These were in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Just until they browned nicely at the edges.

Serve with salad and enjoy!     

 

Avocado Pizza Sauce 

If like us you’re crazy about avocados you’ll love this fantastic simple idea of replacing traditional tomato based sauce with an avocado sauce on your pizza! 

Ingredients:

  • 1 Large Avocado
  • 1/4 cup of water 
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil 
  • 1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt 
  • 1 teaspoon basil 
  • 1 teaspoon oregano 
  • 1 teaspoon thyme 

Take the flesh from 1 large avocado….

      

    2 tablespoons Olive oil   

    1 teaspoon of pink salt…  

    1 teaspoon of oregano…  

    1 teaspoon of basil…  

    1 teaspoon of thyme   

    And place into a jug or mixing bowl…  

    Add water…  

    And stir or blend into a sauce…    

    Then pour onto your pizza base, pictured here is our Flax Flour-Free Base

    Spread evenly…  

      

    And Voila! You’re ready for toppings…

    Spinach… Onions…  
    Red pepper and tomatoes… 
      

    And a sprinkle of hemp seeds…

    Then cook for a further 15 minutes…     

    Enjoy! 

    JA ladies x

    Ground Flax Flour-Free Pizza Base 

     It’s Bank holiday Monday and there is an all round vote for Pizza tonight… Alas! We are out of flour and so this poses a real dilemma in our household this evening…

    Do Not Fear inspiration is here! We happened to find another jar of ground flax seed in the pantry earlier this evening 👌

    Ingredients:

    • 1 and 1/2 Cups ground flaxseed/linseed 
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 2 teaspoons oregano
    • 3 tablespoons of oil
    • 3 flax eggs ( 3 tablespoons of flax + 9 tablespoons of water stirred and left to solidify in the fridge for 15 minutes)
    • 1/2 cup water

    Flax seed measured into our mixing bowl….

      

    Add all ingredients… 

      

    See that baking powder beginning to foam! 

      

    Mix all ingredients together and leave to thicken for 5 minutes… 

      

    Roll out mixture onto a silicone tray to desired thickness  

     
    Shaping this pizza fair and SQUARE ☺️😂 ( Well it became more rectangular actually!) then bake for 15-20 minutes 

     

    Et voila! The mixture solidifies and turns a wonderful brown crispy golden colour.

      

    You can see that the base has solidified and begun to rise from the silicone sheet… 

      
    Now to spread our Perfect Pizza Sauce

      

    And apply toppings! First fresh organic leaf spinach…

      

     …and now organic washed broccoli including thinly slicing the stalks…

     

    …finally some sliced organic and washed yellow pepper  

      

    Completed with a sprinkle of salt, ground pepper and mixed herbs 👌

      

    Into the oven for a further 15-20 minutes then your flax crust pizza is complete. 

      

    Thin Crust Coconut Flour Pizza Base 

    We adore experimenting with new plant based pizza bases! No two pizza bases are ever the same. We can decide upon different thicknesses, different oils, different flours, different seasonings, between crust or no crust  – oh the decisions and choices are splendid! Any excuse to use our imagination!

    This evening (mid-week) we were looking for a quite light and a not very crunchy base (since we are planning crunchy toppings!) 

    Ingredients:
    • 1 1/2 cups of coconut flour
    • 1/2 cup of tapioca flour 
    • 1/2 cup of ground flax or linseed 
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil 
    • Pinch of salt
    • 2 tablespoons basil 
    • 1 cup of warm water

    Add the coconut flour and tapioca flour first and sift through together, we find this really helps to ensure the flours are mixed thoroughly when kneading. Tapioca flour acts rather like a glue that holds everything together – the coconut flour is extremely powdery and not a replacement for ordinary flour. If you don’t have tapioca flour we sometimes use buckwheat instead.

    Add the rest of the ingredients to a mixing bowl and knead well until it forms a dough. 

      

    Then dust your pizza pan with a sprinkle of coconut flour to make sure the bottom doesn’t stick. 

     

     Now don’t worry if the dough is crumbly it won’t be when it bakes! However we find rather than rolling out into a flat dough we can just pour the mixture on top of our pizza pan and mould to the shape of the pan 

    Press down the mixture by pressing lightly with your fingers on the mixture or small rolling pin. 
    Then cook until base is solid and the base begins to crisp at edges – estimately 15-20 minutes.

    Then spread your Perfect Pizza Sauce and simply add your toppings – as you can see below, we chose potato slices, Kale broccoli and onion for tonight’s pizza!  

    D.E.Licious 👌😋 

      

    Beetroot Coconut Flour Gnocchi 

    We used to assume that Gnocchi was always made with potatoes and since converting to a gluten free diet we were determined to find a way to make it without wheat. 

    The great thing about making meals homemade is you actually have to learn about what you’re eating! Before we could make gnocchi however we had to learn exactly what it is! 

    According to Wikipedia Gnocchi are: “various thick, soft dough dumplings that may be made from semolina,[1] ordinary wheat flour,[2]egg,[3] cheese,[4] potato,[5]breadcrumbs,[6] or similar ingredients” 

    Wow, learn something new everyday! We had no idea you could even make gnocchi without potatoes. And so ladies and gentlemen we present to you a recipe for coconut flour gnocchi: 

    Ingredients: 

    • 4 tablespoons of coconut flour
    • 3 flax eggs (3 tablespoons of ground flaxseed and 9 tablespoons of water) 
    • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
    • 1 tablespoon basil
    • 2 teaspoons beetroot powder

    Makes 15 gnocchi balls.

    Add all dry ingredients to a mixing bowl…. 

     Add flax eggs and mix well until consistency feels like a sticky dough. 

    A sticky, well combined PINK dough! 

    Then roll mixture into approximately 1/2 inch balls and leave to chill in the fridge for at least an hour ( or more) We left them for 2 hours. 

        

       

    Then heat a pan until it begins to boil. When the water is boiling add the little balls of gnocchi in. When they rise to the top (it’ll take about 2 minutes) catch them with a slotted spoon and set aside.

        Serve with salad…

       

    And/or add your favourite sauce. We added a homemade blend of tomato and basil 👌🍅

    Voila! A delicious nutritious lunch 😋

    Product Review – The ‘rice’ cube

    For our debut product review we’ve decided to choose a product which we really think more people need to know about.

    *drum roll please* Introducing
    THE ‘RICE’ CUBE! 

    Now as you know we love on our blog something that can make shapes with our food. Contrary to what you may have been taught as a toddler – we really believe you SHOULD play with your food, anything to make food more creative and interesting. We have to eat everyday so why not make meals different and presentable. We love cookie cutters, stencils, spiralisers, pressers – Any gadget that can create a new way to eat or arrange our food.

    So when we discovered The Rice Cube – we were most excited! 

    Now all our recipes our grain free so you might be surprised by our obtaining a ‘rice’ cube? However we strongly believe that the company named their amazing product all wrong! What we saw instead was the DICE cube and unlimited possibilities. 

    When we had a look at their website we knew instantly that the cube wouldn’t only just work for rice however any form of mashable/blendable food. We were thinking potatoes, different coloured quinoa, beans, warm buckwheat, lentils and an array of doughs! We ordered ours from Amazon at the reasonable price of £9.76 and ran to the postman every day until it arrived…. 

    And then that day came!!! 

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    Re-write: “let’s dice everything so it looks cool” 😆

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    Turn dice into art, so quick and easy 😉

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    Neat canapés in seconds…. 😆 

    No knives 

    No special skills… 

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    Falafel ooo now that’s an idea and burgers yes we can make diced vegan burgers and cookies and breads and… And… And mmmmmm

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    Nothing like being greeted with a little message in a box 😀

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    The ‘rice’ cube consists of these two wonderfully vibrant red pieces which perfectly match our kitchenware which of course was a bonus! Not to mention both parts ARE DISHWASHER PROOF! (Which is a serious plus point if like us you’re allergic to washing up! ☺️)

    Here’s a photo by photo demonstration of how we started off first experimenting making buckwheat cubes. (You’ll need a ‘rice’ cube and some cooked buckwheat)

    So here we go! Assembling the two pieces together as per the helpful handy instructions and filling with our warm cooked buckwheat (it works best when it is warm because it is little sticky!): 

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    Then we push the top clamp down rather reminding us of that satisfying feeling when you push down a hole punch of any kind! (Maybe that’s just us!)

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    And when we opened it up… 

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    Just look at that! 😮😳

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    Amazing! We put some diced salad vegetables into the top ones too! 

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    IMG_0001.JPGOh so neat!

    For our second experiment we were making our Chia Seed Dough Balls mixture and decided why have dough balls when we can have dough cubes!?

    And with half the mixture we added some beetroot juice because why have dough cubes when you can have half PINK dough cubes!? 

    Now look how awfully artistic dough balls can be 😉 

      

    We made a whole tray ready to bake!  

    And when they were served they tasted perfect! 

        

    So ladies and gentlemen – moral of the story? You need to get yourselves A DICE we mean ‘rice’ cube 😉!  And keep an eye (or two 👀) on our Just Ate Vegan Instagram Feed and we’ll post lots more ideas as we create them! 

    We hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as we did creating it – if you’ve got any questions leave a comment or email us and in the meantime – TOP product ‘Rice’ Cube Folks! 

    JA Ladies x

    St George’s Day England Pizza

    Happy St George’s Day! We love themed days! Themed days in our kitchen means our minds zoom into sixth gear into creative overdrive to try and find food to theme to the theme! 

    Usually our first stop is the cookie cutter drawer where we are usually bound to have something, though to my dismay this morning we couldn’t find any dragons or roses – (now noted on the ever-growing, never-ending ‘to buy’ list. Hands up who has one of those? 😆) 

    Second stop, Google. Our when-in-despair-Google-is-there motto resulted in many England flag cupcakes however an alarming shortage in our household of all ingredients sweet and sticky wouldn’t make for an appetising recipe. 

    And… So on to stop three: The Fridge. 

     

    Perfect. Third time lucky – 30 second eye scan and we knew just what to do! a St George’s Day Pizza coming to you! 

    First the base made with coconut flour, tapioca flour,  ground linseed/flaxseed, a drizzle of olive oil, warm water and a pinch of salt. Mixed into a fluffy dough, kneaded and rolled into the pan and baked for 18-20 minutes.

     

    And then we stirred together some of our Perfect Pizza Sauce 🍎👌 whilst we were waiting for the base to crisp at the edges. 

    For the toppings We sliced some courgette with our Oxo Good Grips Mandoline and sliced some red pepper strips and created: drum roll please…..  

     

    Little red England inspired flags! These were placed on top of some chopped curly kale for our base topping to represent the scenic English meadows and Summer country picnics on the grass. 

    Now we are sure from our history  learning we rememembed a Prince Orange, and sure enough we confirmed after a short research that William III, King of England was also sovereign Prince of Orange – a loose connection, we know! However enough to excuse some slices of orange on our pizza!  

     

    A sprinkle of salt and pepper and into the oven it went until crispy!! 

    Et Voila! 20 minutes later – A delicious healthy and plantbased gluten free and organic pizza themed for St George’s Day lunch!   

      

    For more of our pizza creations… Take a visit to our Just Ate Pizza Page for lots more plantbased pizza ideas! 

      

    Did you theme your dinner for St George’s day? Get in touch or leave a comment below! We’d love ton hear from you… 

    The JA Ladies x