Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and plant-based
A moment of Sunday bliss
Well sure, croissants and viennese pastries are not healthy food. I remember how I ate way too many of them during my college days. It was convenience food. Quickly store-bought and rapidly devoured. Still, we don’t have to go through life as purists and, if your diet is generally healthy, you can enjoy this kind of heavenly smelling pastry from time to time.
By the way, it is very easy to make a much healthier, plant-based version of it.
In doing so, you start from a roll of vegan puff pastry. Unlike ready-made croissants and viennese cakes, the vegan puff pastry rolls are already quite widely available in a plant-based version. Just ignore the rolls that boast “made with real butter” on the packaging.
And the filling? You can decide for that yourself, with healthy ingredients of your choice. A world of difference from the oversweetened fillings full of refined sugar or glucose syrup of unclear origin.
Here is an example of stuffed croissants with an Ayurvedic touch.
For four croissants you will need:
- One roll of puff pastry without egg or milk products such as butter
- One medium-sized or two small organic apples
- Some dried organic fruit such as apricots, figs and/or dates
- One teaspoon of coconut oil
- 20 grams of white almonds
- One or two tablespoons of almond paste
- Warming spices such as: cinnamon, ginger, allspice and/or garam masala
- One tablespoon ground flaxseed
- Two tablespoons of water
This is how you prepare them
- Bring the crushed flaxseed into a bowl and mix with the water. Leave to rest for 15 minutes.
- Peel and cut the apples into pieces.
- Cut the dried fruit into pieces.
- Melt the coconut oil in a pan, stew the apples along with the dried fruit for a few minutes on low heat.
- Add the spices and remove from the heat. Leave to cool.
- Coarsely chop the almonds. For example by grinding them briefly in a food processor, while pulsing.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Take the puff pastry out of the fridge and let it soften for 15 minutes to make it easier to roll out.
- Roll it out and cut it crosswise into four equal quarter circles. Each quarter becomes a croissant.
- Moisten the 3 sides of each puff pastry triangle with water to increase their adhesive capacity.
- Place a quarter of the fruit mixture on each triangle.
- Then divide the almond butter over the four croissants.
- Divide and sprinkle the chopped almonds over each of the four triangles.
- Roll the croissants to close them, from the longest side towards the tip.
- Press the seams and spiralise the points so that the croissant is tightly sealed.
- Apply the soaked linseed generously on the outside of the croissants.
- Place the baking sheet in a baking tin and bake for about 20 minutes in the middle of the oven.
Let the croissants cool sufficiently after baking. I guarantee you’ll eat these healthier versions of your Sunday croissant in no time. At least in terms of flavour, they will briefly transport you into a state of nirvana that you will crave more often.
How does cooking within Ayurvedic nutritional teachings look like?
The suggested mixture of fruits, nuts and warming spices for these Sunday croissants tastes delicious. You can also eat that on its own as breakfast on other days. It is totally in line with the Ayurvedic approach to cooking. Just deliciously warming in the cold season.
In Ayurvedic cooking philosophy, one aims to maximise the digestibility of food. Whole grains and pulses, such as rice and lentils, vegetables and also fruits in moderation are on the menu. In terms of preparation methods, cooking and heating are the rule. With lots of spices because these stimulate digestion.
Ayurvedic health philosophy is based on three basic constitutions or doshas: vata, pitta and kapha.Everyone has one or more doshas that predominate in their basic constitution. You prepare your meals by choosing foods that suit your overall constitution on the one hand. And on the other hand, you take into account seasonal influences and any imbalances that you want to correct.
Within this vision of nutrition, one avoids raw food as much as possible.
How does ayurvedic nutrition view the use of animal products?
Ayurveda is pre-eminently a vegetarian cooking philosophy.
there is no use of meat nor fish. Ayurvedic practitioners will only exceptionally prescribe them. And then only as a temporary cure, if someone’s health is really very severely debilitated.
Eggs are not on the food list either.
In terms of dairy products, there is very limited use of (fresh) cheese, which they call paneer in India.
There is one dairy product which, on the other hand, enjoys an extremely high status. That is ghee. Ghee is “clarified” butter. It is butter that has been brought to the boil and from which the protein content, which floats to the surface, is skimmed off. This makes the ghee keep for a very long time, even at room temperature.
It is considered almost a miracle ingredient within Ayurveda and people attribute all kinds of far-reaching health benefits to it.
My opinion about ghee
Personally, I think ghee is not done. Probably objectively, it is similar in nutritional value to coconut oil. Both are fats high in saturated fatty acids. Not bad in itself but better to use in moderation.
Energetically, coconut oil is cooling for our organism compared to ghee, which has a more warming effect.
Butter, and hence ghee, are both products of a merciless exploitation of cows by the food industry.The poor animals are artificially kept in lactation and separated from their newborn calves several times, year after year, immediately after birth. Unusually cruel and totally unnecessary.
And from whatever perspective you look at it, the frequency of the energy of that suffering you also absorb from the butter or ghee you consume. Better to avoid.
By eating more plant-based foods, we can actively contribute to ending this abusive and useless suffering.
As for me personally, I think this ethical consideration is the deciding factor, especially since coconut oil offers a good plant-based alternative.
Vegan panna cotta
Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and plant-based
Coconut and co
You can make a purely vegan version of just about anything. Italian cuisine, for example, is rich in all kinds of dairy desserts based on cream and fresh cheese. Did you know that you can also make them using purely plant-based ingredients?
You can make vegan dairy-style desserts using the following alternatives:
- soy products such as tofu, silken tofu or soy cream
- Nuts, such as almonds and cashews
- Coconut
Here is a super simple alternative for a fresh and light Italian-style dessert: the classic panna cotta. If you translate that, it means “cooked cream”. We make this vegan version using coconut milk and soy cream.
To give the dessert a firm and at the same time soft texture, we use agar-agar.
Agar-agar is very well known in vegan and vegetarian cuisine and the perfect alternative to gelatine.
Agar-agar is extracted from red seaweeds.
Gelatine is no more or no less than melted and processed bone and offal from dead mammals.
I know immediately which of the two I prefer. And do you?
What you need for this vegan panna cotta
- One 400ml can of coconut milk
- One brick packet of soy cream of which you will need 75 ml
- Two tablespoons of agave syrup or rice syrup
- A teaspoon of agar-agar powder
- 300 to 400 grams of fresh or frozen fruit for the top layer
- Some grated coconut for the decoration
Read more below about the different coconut products on the market so you can purchase the right items for this recipe.
How to prepare
- Bring the coconut milk, agar-agar and soy cream together in a saucepan and put under heat
- Gently bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly
- Continue to boil for 2 to 3 minutes and keep on stirring
- Remove from the heat and divide evenly among 4 or more glasses
- Let cool completely. If during cooling you notice that the mixture loses its homogeneity and starts to layer, stir occasionally with a whisk
- Cool in the fridge for a few hours
- Before serving, puree the fruit into a coulis and pour it over the panna cottas
- Scatter some grated coconut over the top
In this example, we used raspberries. You could just as well use strawberries, kiwis or mangoes. Fresh or frozen fruit is best. On the other hand, you can also use rehydrated (soaked) dry fruit, for example dried mango or dried apricots.
So enjoy this italian style vegan panna cotta!
What type of coconut product should you choose?
I myself have struggled for a long time to see clearly through all these coconut products available.
There are many to be found on the market.
Here are the main ones:
Milks and creams
- Coconut water: the watery juice of the coconut to which people attribute many health benefits
- Coconut milk: made from the white flesh of the coconut with added water. The fat content may vary. For this recipe, use a coconut milk with 17-20% fat. Other versions can have up to 30% fat and are easier to whip into a firmer whipped cream texture. Not necessary for this recipe!
- Liquid coconut cream: with a higher coconut and fat content compared to the milk. Fresh coconut meat is used, but no water is added.
- Solid coconut cream: (creamed coconut) which is even more concentrated than liquid coconut cream and is sold in block form, like a bar of soap. It is made from the flesh of dried coconuts.
The oil
- Coconut oil: it is only the fat from the flesh of the coconut. This fat, although saturated, is very healthy and has a cooling effect on the body.
- Extra virgin coconut oil: it is pure and still has the typical taste and smell of coconut.
- Deodorised coconut oil: it is the result of a treatment or transformation process and has a neutral taste.
Flour and sugar
- Coconut flour: once the coconut oil has been extracted from the coconut flesh, the remaining pulp can be ground into coconut flour.
- Coconut blossom sugar: a full-flavoured, mineral-rich sugar that is made from the nectar of coconut blossoms.
I hope you can now see a bit more clearly.
Why is animal dairy unsuitable for many people?
Dairy products are unsuitable for the majority of the world’s human population, who experience moderate to severe digestive problems as a result. The result is abdominal pain, bloating of the intestine and sometimes diarrhoea. This phenomenon is called “lactose intolerance”. It is the so-called milk sugar or lactose that most people cannot digest, or cannot digest sufficiently. The phenomenon is described as an aberration, a deviation from a norm, but that is not at all true. It is part of the cultural myth surrounding milk.
It is the northernmost peoples who, over the course of history, had apparently adapted to digesting milk. That makes them something of an exception. That exception was then considered to be the norm after the Second World War.
But apart from that, about 80% of the world’s population is unable to digest the lactose in milk and milk products such as cheese. Being lactose intolerant is therefore not a disease, but simply the most normal thing in the world.
Why is deodorized coconut oil often cheaper than pure, undeodorized coconut oil?
Seems paradoxical, doesn’t it? The deodorized coconut oil undergoes an extra treatment, and still it is cheaper than the pure “extra virgin” coconut oil.
For the virgin coconut oil, only the better, fresh coconuts are used.
However, the deodorisation process also allows the use of coconuts of inferior quality. When the coconuts are harvested, the farmers pile them up in anticipation of processing. In the tropical climate, some of the nuts soon start to turn mouldy, which creates an unpleasant smell. With the deodorisation process (heating with steam), not only does the typical sweetish coconut smell disappear, but also the unpleasant odours of the mouldy nuts.
Stability when circumstances change
For the month of September, I chose the Revolved Praying Hero posture. In the more fitness oriented postural yoga, this one is also known as Revolved Lunge. The technical or Sanskrit name of this posture is Parivritta Namaskara Virasana. I deliberately do not use sanskrit terminology during yoga classes, because that is like giving a Catholic mass in Latin. And that is no longer of this time.
Sanskrit is good for the technical classification of postures or if you are studying or retraining in the Indian tradition.
Why does this posture fit so well with the month of September?
This posture fits well in this transitional season between summer and autumn. It is a yoga posture with a strong “grounding” character. Still, it is also “fiery”. It is a posture in which the earth element comes to the fore and the fire energy of summer can still be felt. It invites you to stand firm and stay in balance. That is exactly what we have to do now.
In the transitional periods between the four seasons, we are invited to make adjustments to our daily habits in order to keep our health in balance through the change of seasons.
This posture can be a good part of a sun salutation sequence.
Yoga influences and supports our well-being on all possible levels: physical, energetic, emotional, mental, spiritual.
See here how this posture affects all these levels:
Physical benefits
.
- Strengthening of the back, arms, ankles, legs, glutes
- Stabilizing and strengthening of the hip joints
- Opening and widening of the chest area
- Building and maintaining strength in the abdominal area
- Improving the mobility of the shoulders, shoulder blades and upper back
Energetic effects
- Activating and warming
- Stretching the kidney and liver meridians in the straightened rear leg, and of the gall bladder meridian in the side of the body
- Grounding of the feet and legs
- Stability and firmness in the lower chakras, space and release in the upper chakras
Emotional well-being
- Intensity
- Balance
- Staying calm in your own centre, even if conditions are challenging
- Stability
- Opening of the heart from a firm and balanced foundation
Mental attitude
- The ability to take several actions at once while staying focused
- Concentrated, clear and alert thinking
- Maintaining the balance between opposites
Spiritual growth
- A firm connection with the earth as a basis for development and liberation
Would you like to book one of our classes?
Have a look at our offer in yoga classes and book using the links here below:
Prana Yoga Flow
A full description of the basic postures of Prana Yoga Flow can be found in the book: “Prana Yoga Flow – Activate your life force, open your heart and live freely”, by Alberto Paganini. (Available in both dutch and english).
Alberto Paganini was one of my very first yoga teachers. You can find his website (in Dutch) here.
Fresh vegan cheese
Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and plant-based
The perfect and tasty alternative
Fresh white cheese, also known as flat cheese in Flemish and cottage cheese, used to be a favourite on my breakfast table. Fortunately, today I can make a quick vegan version of this in no time.
There are some vegetable cottage cheese substitutes available on the market. The organic versions, from the brand Provamel among others, are hard to find in organic stores and organic supermarkets, which still give high priority to (organic) animal dairy products. The classic cottage cheese substitute from Alpro in the ordinary supermarket (Alpro Greek Style) in its “natural version” contains no less than 14 ingredients, including sugar (!) and a whole bunch of preservatives to guarantee the thing a long life on the shop shelves. Whenever I eat the latter, my palate tends to react violently against it.
The good news: with silken tofu you can make vegan “flat” cheese in no time with just 3 ingredients!
What you need
- One packet of silken tofu
- The juice of half a or a whole lemon (to taste)
- A pinch of sea salt or Himalayan salt (to taste)
Silken tofu is commonly found in 400g (The Hobbit or Taifun) or small 300g (Clearspring) brick packs. The protein content varies quite markedly. So this is not a recipe with very precise quantities. I invite you to experiment according to taste and preference.
This is how you do it
- Put the silken tofu in a food processor after you drain or press out the excess water
- Add the salt and lemon juice
- Mix in the food processor until you get a creamy consistency
- Taste and if necessary add some more lemon or salt
This vegan fresh cheese will keep for about 5 days in the fridge.
It can further serve as a starting point for all kinds of delicious variations
How to make a savoury dip of this vegan cheese
- Add a tablespoon of miso to the mixture
- Add a tablespoon of sesame oil and mix well
- You can finish off with extra fresh herbs or spices to taste
How to make a chocolate spread
- Add a tablespoon of unsweetened (preferably raw) cocoa powder
- Sweeten with one or two tablespoons of agave syrup or other suitable wholefood sweetener
How to make a delicious plant-based tzatziki
Read the recipe for vegan tzatziki here (link) and see how easy it is to make a delicious fresh summer side dish with this vegan fresh cheese as a base, for a salad buffet or as a spread.
Sweet treats with silken tofu
Silken tofu is also a perfect base for all kinds of sweet desserts. Read more here.
Why not use animal dairy products?
The current methods of producing animal dairy products are very harmful to the environment and wasteful of resources and raw materials. Moreover, they are based on the merciless exploitation of animals. Newborn calves, goats or buffaloes are immediately taken from their mothers because the milk is stolen for human consumption. It is a painful cycle of forced insemination, forced childbirth and repeated severing of the maternal bond that the mother animals are forced to go through again and again. Until, after repeated pregnancies and giving thousands and thousands of litres of milk, they are finally sent to the slaughterhouse. I find that incredibly cruel and out of keeping with our current state of civilisation.
In addition, milk is presented as much healthier than it really is. The fact that adults still drink the mother’s milk of another species is completely absurd.
Food technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and it looks as if the entire classical dairy sector is going to disappear completely. Anyone who wants to eat animal cheeses and other derived dairy products in the future can be sure that in the near future they will be made by fermentation processes in tanks. The starting point will be a limited quantity of animal stem cells or substances. The animal itself will finally be freed from the slavery of dairy production and human exploitation.
Silken Tofu in depth
Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based
Two tofus, yet so different
I cannot repeat it enough. The food industry does not have the slightest interest in or commitment to our health or well-being. It is a big >
machine whose motto is to make as much money as possible. Give as little quality as possible, and make the consumer pay for it as much as possible. You may think that I am exaggerating, but the reality is often much more shocking. Sometimes I feel that words are inadequate.
The yoga of nutrition
Yoga is, among other things, about developing consciousness. And you can’t have enough consciousness. Certainly not when it comes to food.
In a recent press article, plant-based milk substitutes were pretty much destroyed because, with only a few exceptions, they were judged to be of very poor nutritional value.
What is true in that story is that there are indeed many manufacturers who shamelessly put watery concoctions in tetra packs on sale for far too much money. In those cases, you can just as well drink ordinary tap water for a fraction of the price.
What is wrong with that story is that plant-based milk substitutes are by definition poor in nutritional value. Good soya, almond or oat milk, preferably homemade from beans, grains or nuts of organic origin, can easily withstand the comparison with animal milk. At least, if you take all the health parameters into account.
A matter of business ethics
And there are indeed a handful of manufacturers in the food sector who still do efforts to offer you quality. In the context of plant-based milk substitutes, the percentage of protein is a good measure of quality. This is directly proportional to the amount of nuts, beans or grains added in the production process.
Just compare the different brands. Compare, for example, the percentage of protein in the organic almond milk of the Italian brand Valdibella, with that of the almond milk of the market leader Alpro, which is more often than not in the doldrums. Then price differences suddenly appear in a completely different light, and a low price is often synonymous with total delusion.
Read the labels and learn how to interpret them
We have little or no means of really checking what is added to pre-packaged food. Yes, there are the labels. But even there we are never sure if the legal minimums of average composition stated on them correspond to reality.
The differences in composition between manufacturers sometimes affect the recipes for home made preparations.
For example, take the product known as “silken tofu” An example of such a recipe with silken tofu can be found here on this blog.
Tofu is essentially a type of vegetable cheese, which, like cheese of animal origin, is made after a process of curdling soy milk. Silken tofu is a creamier, softer and more liquid version of classic tofu. It can be used to prepare dishes with a cream or cream cheese-like texture.
Let us have a look at what three very respectable manufacturers of soy products are offering.
Both manufacturer De Hobbit from Belgium, manufacturer Taifun from Germany, and Clearspring from the UK certainly belong to the world top when it comes to organic soy products that are in principle (*) free of genetically modified soy.
All kinds of silken tofu are sold under the same name (silken & smooth tofu).
See below for the composition as stated on the labels:
Silken tofu from Clearspring, per 100 g product
| Energy | Carbohydrates | Sugars | Fat | Sat. fat | Protein | Fibre | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 257 kJ/61 kcal | 2,8 g | 1,1 g | 2,7 g | 0,5 g | 6,5 g | No info | 0 g |
Silken tofu from De Hobbit, per 100 g product
| Energy | Carbohydrates | Sugars | Fat | Sat. fat | Protein | Fibre | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 353 kJ/85 kcal | 2,1 g | 0,8 g | 4,0 g | 0,7 g | 7,8 g | No info | 0 g |
Taifun’s silken tofu, per 100 g product
| Energy | Carbohydrates | Sugars | Fat | Sat. fat | Protein | Fibre | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 202 kJ/48 kcal | 1,8 g | <0,5 g | 2,1 g | 0,5 g | 5,3 g | No info | <0,01 g |
The rather huge difference in protein and fat content explains why the Hobbit’s silken tofu has a much thicker texture than Taifun’s silken tofu. The one made by Taifun contains more water. You sometimes have to take this into account in recipes, because the creaminess and the end result can be quite different.
Calcium or magnesium?
And there is another important distinction between the two. In order to make soy milk curdle, salts are usually used in the industry. These are either:
- Calcium salts
- Magnesium salts
According to its label, De Hobbit uses calcium sulphate
On the other hand, Taifun and Clearspring use, according to their label, magnesium chloride
This means that you cannot make a general statement about the high calcium content of tofu. There is simply not a general rule. Everything depends on which salt is used. And that’s tend to differ from one manufacturer to another.
For vegans, this does have important consequences. After all, they do not consume calcium from animal dairy products, something that vegetarians or omnivores do.
For vegetarians, the distinction is less important.
Conclusion:In case of doubt between product A and product B, always rely on the facts that are mentioned on the labels. A warned consumer is worth two!
Genetically modified soy
(*) When we say that both manufacturers’ soy products are in principle free from GMO soy, we mean that both use cultivation methods that are in line with the organic cultivation methods in Europe, which starts with natural, unmanipulated seed. However, GMO-soy contamination can of course never be ruled out completely. That is one of the unpredictable consequences of the fact that genetically modified soya is allowed to be used elsewhere in the world, and also reaches our regions in animal feed.
Why are soybeans being genetically manipulated?
The phytopharmaceutical industry has placed on the market artificially genetically manipulated variants of various plant species, including soy, which have mainly been made resistant to pesticides. These seeds, together with the accompanying, often dangerous pesticides (think of Monsanto’s RoundUp) are sold to farmers with the promise of much higher crop yields. The consequence is that it is in fact an incentive to use even more pesticides.
Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:
Read more articles about nutrition, health and plant-based foods:
Read more about plant-based food
Read more about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:
Check out our yoga classes here:
Embrace life with wheel posture
Our favourite posture for the month of July is the wheel posture. The technical or Sanskrit name of this wheel posture is Chakrasana or Urdhva Dhanurasana (Bow upwards). I deliberately do not use sanskrit terminology during the yoga classes I guide, because that feels like giving a Catholic mass in Latin.
Like the fish posture, this is also an opening pose, a variation of the backband. It opens and extends the front side of the body intensely.
Wheel posture is pre-eminently a posture that is somewhat easier to perform in the summer season, and somewhat more difficult in the winter. This is no coincidence. It is a yoga posture with a very “fiery” character, which strongly activates the solar plexus chakra.
It is one of the most intense postures in the Prana Yoga Flow. In our classes you will learn how to work towards it step by step.
Yoga influences and supports our well-being on all possible levels: physical, energetic, emotional, mental, spiritual.
See here how this posture affects all these levels:
Physical benefits
- Expanding the breathing capacity and strengthening the heart
- More space around and release of tension around the heart
- Strengthening of the back, arms, legs and buttocks
- Opening and expanding of the abdomen and chest
- Relaxation of the head and neck
- Improving the flexibility of the shoulders, shoulder blades and upper back
- Increased blood circulation in the whole body
- Prevention of heart and artery diseases
Energetic effects
- Activating and warming
- Stretching of the Ren Mai, stomach, heart and spleen meridians
- Grounding of the hands and feet
- Intense opening of all 7 chakras in the body
- Improved energy flow between the solar plexus and heart chakra
Emotional well-being
Mental attitude
- Improved sense of purpose
- More openness
- Concern for the positive and constructive
Spiritual growth
- Connection
- Powerful action with an open heart
- Joy of life
- Entrepreneurial spirit
- Healthy vigour
- Strong foundation
Would you like to book one of our classes?
Have a look at our offer in yoga classes and book using the links here below:
Prana Yoga Flow
A full description of the basic postures of Prana Yoga Flow can be found in the book: “Prana Yoga Flow – Activate your life force, open your heart and live freely”, by Alberto Paganini. (Available in both dutch and english).
Alberto Paganini was one of my very first yoga teachers. You can find his website (in Dutch) here.
Vegan chocolate brownie
Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based
Brownies without eggs or dairy products
Black beans are the secret protein source of this recipe. If you are working with dried black beans, soak them for 24 hours and then boil them soft. For this recipe, assume about 80 g of dry beans. Put the beans in a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Do not add salt to the cooking water.
Even better: use a pressure cooker, then they will be done in 25 minutes. In an ordinary saucepan, they need 45 to 60 minutes to cook. Add water now and again as it evaporates. But if you are a bit on the lazy side, you can also use canned black beans, which are soft, pre-cooked and ready to be eaten.
Why without eggs?
Who needs eggs? Eggs and egg powder are used abundantly in industrial pastry. Modern egg production is harmful and cruel to chickens, even if the eggs are supposedly from organic origin. Unless you care for your own chickens and entitle them to a dignified old age once they have stopped laying eggs, there are plenty of healthier and cheaper alternatives:
- Like a simple banana.
- Or apple sauce
- Or a tablespoon of crushed flaxseed that you soak in two tablespoons of water.
The absence of eggs in this recipe means you can lick the leftover batter off your scraper without feeling guilty. There is no risk of salmonella infection, which can occur when you eat raw eggs.
With or without gluten?
You can also use a gluten-free type of flour in this recipe. Gluten-free flours such as millet, buckwheat, corn or soy are easier to digest for most of us. But you can also use a five-grain mix or whole-wheat spelt flour for a classic version with gluten. Many of today’s nutritionists say that modern, industrial wheat is best avoided. As far as pesticides are concerned, I agree with them. Personally, I think it is best to listen to your body’s reactions. Good wheat or spelt of organic origin (i.e. without pesticides) is OK in itself. Those grains also contain a lot of vegetable protein of good quality.
What you need for a small cake (approx. 350g):
- One large, ripe banana. The riper, the better
- Aproximately 120g rinsed black beans, soft boiled or canned. Aduki beans are also very good
- 3 tablespoons of neutral-tasting vegetable oil that can withstand heating, e.g. high oleic sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon of ground vanilla (optional)
- 6 soft mazafati or medjoul dates
- 4 leveled tablespoons unsweetened pure cocoa
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 40 to 45 g flour (buckwheat or millet flour for the gluten-free version of this brownie)
- a pinch of sea salt.
- 1/2 cup (about 40 g) coarsely chopped walnuts (other nuts will do too)
- 1/2 cup (about 60 g) vegan black chocolate drops (optional)
It is always a good idea to soak the nuts in water overnight. The nuts revive, the bitterness disappears and they taste like they have just been picked fresh from the tree. They are also much more digestible. Discard the soaking water and rinse the nuts well.
It is done in a jiffy, really:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/340°F.
- Place the beans, oil, dates and banana in a food processor and mix well, first slowly and then at higher speed.
- Add the vanilla and then the cocoa. Puree everything well. The result is a rather liquid, moist glossy dark brown mixture.
- Mix together the dry ingredients: the flour, the baking powder and the pinch of salt.
- In the food processor, gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until the mixture becomes a little drier, but still creamy and moist.
- Spoon the contents of your food processor into a mixing bowl.
- Then add the chopped nuts and chocolate drops. Mix roughly.
- Finally, transfer everything to a low rectangular, square or round cake tin or baking tray covered with kitchen paper.
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. The brownie tastes best when it is still slightly moist inside. (A larger cake needs to bake a little longer).
Enjoy! With healthy and respectful ingredients like these, chocolate cake becomes healthy food full of love for the whole planet!
Black Bean brownies / Approximate nutritional value per 100 g of product:
| Energy | Carbohydrates | Sugars | Fat | Sat. fat | Protein | Fibre | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1098,40 kJ/262,35 kcal | 34,12 g | 14,56 g | 13,55 g | 2,60 g | 7,21 g | 7,44 | 0,09 g |
Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:
Find more articles about nutrition, health and plant-based foods:
Read more about plant-based food
Read more about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:
Check out our yoga classes here:
Silken tofu delights
Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, plant-based and compassionate.
Silken tofu as a basis for vegetable desserts.
When you eat healthy and plant-based, you leave out animal dairy products.
Sometimes that can seem like a daunting task.
That’s why it’s good to guard against the temptation of the gigantic and excessively large dairy departments in supermarkets, with all their overpackaged sweet cream and milk desserts.
Sadly, there is still relatively little plant-based dairy products and desserts in the trade. In the strategy to protect yourself, it is a good idea to make superior home-made versions yourself that you just have ready in your fridge. Things that are just as tasty and a lot healthier and which you can enjoy every day in moderation. By making them yourself, you know exactly what goes into them and you also save money and a huge mountain of packaging waste.
Here is an example of a very flexible basic recipe that you can vary in different flavour versions.
What do you need?
The basics
For the sweet silk tofu base you only need 2 to 3 ingredients:
- 400 gr silken tofu
- 6 to 7 large soft organic medjool or mazafati dates
And then there are the following options:
- If you are an intensive athlete or if you want your dessert to be a bit more solid, then you may want to add 20 grams of pea protein.
- If you just want it to be a bit firmer, without an extra protein boost, simply add a teaspoon of psyllium fibre.
The tastes
As for flavour, here are four different versions, each with its own flavour. But actually, there is no need to put a brake on your creativity.
For a chocolate version:
- 2 tablespoons (raw) unsweetened cocoa
For a speculaas/allspice version:
- 1 to 2 teaspoons of speculaas spices (or allspice mixture)
- 1 extra teaspoon of cinnamon
For a hazelnut version (my favourite!):
- 3 tablespoons organic unsweetened whole hazelnut butter
For a fruity version:
- 30 g fruit such as mango (fresh or rehydrated dried mango) or fresh red fruit
- some extra fruit to decorate
The toppings
To finish off, you can decorate the desserts with all kinds of tasty and healthy things such as:
- walnuts or pecans
- coarsely chopped raw cocoa beans
- cinnamon powder
- Some extra cocoa powder
- Grated coconut
- Extra fruit
Procedure:
This is really super easy.
- Remove the seeds from the dates and cut them into pieces.
- Do the silken tofu, dates, flavoring ingredients and possibly the pea protein in a food processor. Then grind everything until you have an even, fairly firm creamy texture.
- Divide the result over 4 bowls.
- Decorate with the elements of your choice.
- Put in the refrigerator for a few hours to become firmer.
Bon appetit!
This dessert has deliberately been kept moderately sweet. We eat too much sugar anyway.
Do you find it not sweet enough? Then add 2 more dates, or a tablespoon of agave or maple syrup.
How is silken tofu made?
Silken tofu, like the firmer tofu, is made from soya beans. Its texture is a bit like a firm cottage cheese. Silken tofu is usually sold in 400 gram cartons.
Silken tofu consists of a large proportion of water and soya beans (approx. 20% – can vary somewhat from manufacturer to manufacturer) and contains around 5.3 g of high-quality protein per 100 g of product.
It also contains fat and carbohydrates in roughly equal proportions (approx. 2 g each). Silken tofu contains virtually neither sugars, nor salt.
It is very suitable for making desserts with a creamy texture.
Is silken tofu a good source of calcium?
.
Tofu can also be quite rich in calcium. It can … but not necessarily. It all depends on how the soya proteins are curdled. In order to curdle the proteins, a simple salt is used, which does not affect the taste. This salt is sold under the name of Nigari. It consists of:
- either calcium chloride
- or magnesium chloride
In the first case the end product (the silken tofu) will be rich in calcium, in the other case rich in magnesium.
Silken tofu / Nutritional value per 100 g product:
| Energy | Carbs | Sugars | Fat | Sat. Fat | Protein | Fibre | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 202 kJ/48 kcal | 1.8 g | <0.5 g | 2.1 g | 0.5 g | 5.3 g | – | <0,01 g |
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Pamper your gut bacteria
Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, plant-based, compassionate.
Speaking of “influencers”: your gut bacteria are certainly the biggest influencers of your health.
Water or aquakefir is a drink with a fresh pleasantly sour taste. Our intestinal bacteria love it. You make the drink by fermenting sugar in water together with some dried fruit, slices of lemon and above all: water kefir cultures.
These cultures are in fact microorganisms, a symbiosis between yeasts and benign bacteria, whose bodies look like small, white, semi-transparent irregular balls, a bit like tiny cauliflower heads.
This is a recipe for homemade aquakefir:
The ingredients
For 1 litre of water kefir:
- 1 litre water
- 70 gr light or dark cane sugar (avoid refined white sugar, a whole and unrefined sugar is better, it still contains numerous minerals)
- 70 gr of aquakefir cultures
- Some dried fruit of your choice, such as apricots, figs, sultanas or prunes …
- A few slices of lemon, cut into pieces
- One empty bottle of one litre with a screw-on lid or a sufficiently large preserving jar
If you use 750 ml reused bottles such as the commercial organic fruit juice bottles, the amount of water will be 750 ml and the corresponding amount of sugar and cultures 50 g each.
Choose dried fruit of organic quality, and in any case unsulphured. Idem for the fresh lemon.
Preparation
First stage: fermentation
Add the sugar to the water, close the bottle, shake to dissolve the sugar completely.
Then weigh out the appropriate quantity of cultures and add them to the contents of the bottle. Next, add the dry fruits cut into pieces and the lemon. Squeeze the lemon lightly to release the juice.
Put the lid on the bottle, but do not screw it down. Fermentation causes the formation of CO2 bubbles which must be allowed to escape, otherwise the bottle could explode due to the pressure built up.
Leave the bottle at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours.
After a few hours, the fermentation process will get into full swing. Bubbles will form and float to the surface, the sugar content will drop (this is the “fuel” for the cultures) and the micro-organisms will grow.
If you “harvest” the drink after 24 hours, it will have slightly laxative properties.
Harvest after 48 hours for the best result.
Separate the drink from the cultures and fruit residues using a sieve.
Your water kefir is ready for use.
Second phase: adding flavour with fresh fruit (optional)
Would you like a fruitier flavour?
Cut up some fresh fruit of your choice and add it to your bottle of finished aquakefir. Leave the bottle at room temperature for another 24 hours, then filter through a sieve to separate out any fruit residue.
Be creative in your choice of fruit. Cherries, strawberries, citrus fruit or fresh plums or umeboshi plums give excellent results.
Aquakefir keeps for around ten days in the fridge.
Where to get the cultures?
I often get the kefir ‘flowers’ from other fermenters. You can also buy powdered starter cultures in organic shops. In that case, follow the instructions on the package.
Maintaining the cultures
Important: These beautiful creatures are allergic to metals it seems. So use utensils in plastic, wood, glass or ceramic to handle or filter them.
Use a fine-mesh nylon sieve. I do not recommend a sieve in metal or metal spoons.
You can repeat the fermentation cycle as often and as long as you like. You can distribute the surplus cultures to other people who are looking for aquakefir cultures or just compost them or throw them away.
And if you have had enough and need a break, you can keep the cultures in a jar of water in the fridge with a pinch of sugar as a survival ration. This way the cultures stay in good condition in the fridge for three weeks. After three weeks, throw away the water, rinse the cultures under running water and store them in the same way for another three weeks.
Always rinse your utensils and cultures under running water after each use. Avoid aggressive cleaning or dishwashing products.
Vitamin B12?
Some sources claim that this drink contains vitamin B12. This seems quite possible, as there are other micro-organisms that are able to produce vitamin B12. However, I have not yet seen any scientific confirmation for water kefir. So don’t build on this assumption!.
If you are a vegan, or if you are over 55, it is advisable to take a vitamin B12 supplement anyway. The absorption capacity of the body decreases with age. With regular intake of a supplement, you are assured of a regular, reliable and sufficiently high intake.
Gut flora
If your intestinal bacteria flourish, you radiate health. So they can use all the support they can get.
A healthy, varied diet with sufficient fibre is crucial. In addition, you can boost the diversity of your intestinal flora from time to time with probiotics. These are substances that provide additional favourable bacteria and all kinds of substances.
In moderation
Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha and this aquakefir, are not a staple food. Add them as a tasty and healthy extra for your gut flora to an otherwise balanced diet.
Fermented foods such as yoghurts and fermented vegetables exert their beneficial effect on condition that they are still “alive”. This means that they must not be pasteurised or sterilised.
Use fermented products in moderation.
Open your heart with Fish posture
Our posture for the month of May is Fish Posture, or Matsyasana.
Excellent to practice right after candle and/or plough posture, as it helps to rebalance the neck.
See how this posture supports us on so many different levels:
Physical
- Deepening of the breath
- More space and release of tension around the heart
- Strengthening of the upper back
- Stimulation of the thyroid and thymus glands
- Deep stretch of the neck and jaw muscles as well as the throat
Energetical
- It improves the energy flow between solar plexus, heart- and throatchakra.
- Stretching of the Ren Mai and Bladder meridian on the trunc
- Stretching of the Stomach and Liver meridians in the legs (when performed with legs in tailor posture or lotus posture)
Emotional
- Cultivation of Joy and Hope.
- Counteracts depression and fearful reticence
Mental
- Helps to bring on and keep a positive, optimistic and inspiring attitude to life
Spiritual
- To engage with life with an open and trustful attitude
- Courage
- Hope
- Love of Freedom
- Selfless Love
- Compassion
- Kindness
- Purity
- Helps to develop the Heart chakra awareness.
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