Beetroot and Butter Beans Hummus

A purple makeover: beetroot and butter beans hummus! If you're looking for some new dip or snacks ideas or you're a little tired of your traditional hummus, try this purple dip of deliciousness - I'm sure you'll be hooked! It's also much lower in fat than the traditional hummus and it also tastes absolutely divine with no added salt. Clean, healthy and full of rich flavours it goes perfectly with sugar snap peas, carrots, cucumbers, radishes or as a spread on a wholegrain crispbread.

INGREDIENTS:
(makes approximately 2 small dip dishes as pictured) 

♥ 1/2 cup of grated or thinly sliced beets (raw is best, you can use lightly steamed, but avoid canned)
♥ 1/2 cup of cooked butter beans
♥ 1-2 teaspoons of tahini (depending on your personal preference)
♥ 1-2 garlic cloves (optional)
♥ 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (optional)

METHOD:

1.  Puree beets, butter beans, garlic and lemon juice until smooth. If needed, add a tablespoon of filtered water or more lemon juice to ease the process.
2.  Add tahini and stir thoroughly. 

WHY BEETROOT? 

♥ Good source of potassium, folate (vitamin B9) and vitamin C
♥ Helps clear blood of stress and sex hormones, thus helping fight anxiety and improving your weight loss and sleep
♥ Thins the bile, detoxifies the liver and enhances liver function
♥ Helps eliminate cravings for high fat or deep-fried foods
♥ Helps treat high blood pressure, fatty liver and high blood cholesterol
♥ Decreases risk of developing heart disease and heart attack
♥ Provides good support to women during menstruation
♥ Improves skin complexion
♥ Contains phytochemicals that have potent anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory properties
♥ Improves digestion helping deal with constipation and IBS

* As beetroot is rich in oxalate, please ensure you have an adequate calcium intake.
** If you suffered from or are prone to calcium oxalate kidney stones, please consult your doctor before introducing beetoot into your diet.

Nourishing and Tasty Avocado & Egg Sandwich Filling

Time to upgrade your old egg mayo sandwiches to a new healthy level! This simple high protein sandwich filling will satisfy hunger, keep you full longer and give your body nutrients, vitamins and minerals it will be thankful for. Avocado is not only a great taste companion here, but also a wonderful fruit that is a source of healthy monounsaturated fats, magnesium and potassium. Of course, I didn't forget about the greens, the super-food mother nature grows for us! This is a great example how the increase your green leaves intake - just add a little to your meals as often as possible!

INGREDIENTS:
(Makes 3 portions)
♥ 2 hard boiled organic eggs
♥ 1/2 avocado
♥ 2 tablespoons of organic fat-free plain yogurt
♥ Rocket leaves to taste
♥ Spring onions to taste
♥ Ground pepper to taste
♥ Sea salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:
♥ Slice eggs, avocado and spring onions as on the picture above.
I use this great little helper for slicing boiled eggs and avocado. Slices in seconds and saves tons of time!

♥ In a bowl, mix them with yogurt. 
♥ Put rocket leaves on organic wholegrain bread slice and top it with the mixture
♥ Season with ground pepper and a little tiny bit of salt

Here's a takeaway friendly option (made for my husband as a healthy alternative to airport takeaways):
♥ Put low fat cheese slices on top of each sandwich and wrap sandwiches around with foil.

And voila!
Hope you enjoy this one!


With Love,
Natalia

Delicious Vegan Kale Pesto Recipes

I love the idea of pesto, but I absolutely cannot approve just how much salt, or oil is poured onto the mixture of commercial products. Some of them have some other strange ingredients added and I wouldn't risk eating such product on a daily basis.

So I came up with an idea that is both healthy, delicious and well-balanced and takes no time to prepare! It is perfect for mixing it up with your pasta, salad or even add less olive oil and use it as a toast topping!

Here are my favorite two varieties:

Here's what you'll need for CASHEW based pesto:

♥ Organic Kale - 200g (I just get a large packet and use it all)

♥ Cashew Nuts that are raw, unsalted, non-roasted and preferably organic - 90-100g (or less if you like!)

♥ Organic Virgin Olive Oil - 2-3 table spoons. You can definitely play around with it and use little less if you want to make a spread for toast.

♥ Fresh Basil leaves - I use about a half from the whole living basil pot I buy from supermarket (wish I had a garden to grow my own basil! sigh... :) )

♥ Freshly squeezed juice from either a half or quarter of fresh lemon

♥ Sea Salt - half a table spoon

♥ Ground Black Pepper - to taste

After you washed all leaves and kale, put all ingredients in a chopper or a food processor, and chop until the desired smoothness. If little more moisture needed just add lemon juice or water! ;)

And Voilá!

Serve with wholemeal organic pasta (cooked al dente), wholemeal pitta bread or a salad. 

And for MACADAMIA based pesto everything is the same BUT FOR:

♥ Macadamia Nuts that are raw and unsalted - 90-100g or less if you like

♥ Freshly squeezed juice from half a Lime instead of Lemon

♥ I also like to add some fresh dill to the mixture - just a few grams will suffice

Perfect with organic German rye bread... ❤

A DELICIOUS DIP VERSION:

This one is actually a raw organic spinach based dip (which again can be perfectly made of kale, so it's entirely up to you!:)) with cashew nuts, lemon juice and sea salt. For this variation just add slightly less olive oil and voila!

Enjoy your food and be healthy!

With Love,

Natalia xx