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Picture of a bottle of nut milk

Nut Milk

nutrition, recipes, ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and vegan

Making your own plant based milk, it’s done in hardly more than the blink of an eye. Of course, many different kinds of plant based milk are for sale in classic supermarkets as well as in organic wholefood stores. That is really a good thing, but why would you have to put up with al that packaging waste? Every year, Earth Overshoot Day (*) shifts to yet another couple of days earlier on the year, and the making of all those packages is partly responsible for that.
Making your own, raw and unpasteurized organic vegan milk in the quantities that suit you, it doesn’t take any longer than fixing a cup of tea or a cup of coffee.

What you need for half a litre of plant based nut milk:

  • 50 grs of nuts, preferably soaked
  • 500 ml of water
  • a pinch of sea salt (optional)
  • a pinch of cinnamon (optional)
  • a blender or a mixer and its cup
  • a finely meshed nylon filter bag

Picture of nuts and tools to make nut milk
Appropriate nuts for plant milk are almonds and cashew nuts. Preferably buy them organic.
Let the nuts soak in water and afterwards rinse them well in a strainer.
Almonds can be left soaking overnight, cashews will be ready after one and a half to three hours soaking.

here’s how you proceed:

  • Put the soaked nuts into the cup of the blender or mixer.
  • Add the other ingredients, pour the water over and blend thoroughly during about 30 seconds.
  • Pour the mixture through the filter bag into a wide enough recipient such as a measuring jug, then press out the nut pulp to extract most of the liquid.
  • Pour the nut drink into a glass bottle with a screw cap.

Done !
It will keep about three days in the refrigerator. Afterwards the milk will turn slightly acid as a result of fermentation.
Enjoy your plant milk!

What to do with the pulp ?

The pulp is made of the unsoluble fibres of the nuts. You can add that pulp to your morning muesli or porridge, or work it into cookie dough, whether or not you make raw cookies or traditional ones. This way, nothing gets lost.
(*)Earth Overshoot Day: The day of the year on which all resources that the Earth can produce in one year, are used up.

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Picture showing crumesan

Crumesan

nutrition, recipes,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, vegan

Ditch Parmesan as of today

Because here’s something very easy, very simple and a lot healthier: Crumesan. And no cows or other farm animals have had to suffer for it.
Amongst people who make their first steps with plant based food, you can observe that they like to have something that resembles grated cheese, to sprinkle over pasta sauce or soups, and that has a bit the same dry, granular texture and a similar taste sensation as grated Parmesan cheese.

I found this simple recipe for “crumesan” in the rich works of David Côté and Mathieu Gallant. They are two inspiring canadian men that run a plant-based raw food company named “Crudessence”. Crudessence is not only about plant-based raw eating, they even consider the living plant-based raw kitchen as a philosophy of life with plenty of ramifications to several aspects of life, and even as a political act with a huge positive rebound for the environment. In Canada they have a couple of restaurants, a raw food academy and they also have several books on their name in the Crudessence series. In those books you can find a lot of raw vegan basics from which you can ignite your own creative spirit.
Absolutely worthwhile as a source of inspiration!
Here is the link: www.crudessence.com
Picture showing Crumesan and its ingredients

This is what you need and their proportions:

  • About 140 grammes of Brazil nuts
  • A quarter teaspoon of sea salt or more, to your taste
  • A quarter, a half or a complete clove of garlic, to your taste
  • About 1/8 teaspoon of ground black pepper or a mixture of three peppers

This is how you proceed:

Brazil nuts need not be soaked overnight, in contrast to most other nuts.
Bring the Brazil nuts, the garlic clove and the sea salt with the pepper in a kitchen robot with an S-shaped blade. Pulsate a couple of times until you get the desired texture grain. Then scoop it all into a glass jar with a screwing lid. The crumesan will preserve happily in the fridge for two up to three weeks. If that isn’t easy!
Enjoy!

Cutting out diary

A lot of people start off their journey towards a plant-based life style by going through a vegetarian phase first. This allows the consumption of dairy such as milk, cheese, butter and also eggs. Dairy can in no way be considered as healthy food. The dairy cows are amongst the most miserable slaves of our modern day economy, which seems to be built entirely on animals and animal products. The food industry incorporates cheese in a large amount of foods, like a hidden serial poisoner, comparable to the ubiquitous refined sugar. Moreover, cheese is highly addictive.

The advantages of letting go

When you say goodbye to dairy forever, the health and according general well-being benefits , even in the short run, are ENORMOUS. The dairy industry is a rather recent phenomenon in the Western world, dating from right after the Second World War. It is in fact built on the incorrect assumption that milk from cows and other land mammals and their derivatives, are an essential part of a healthy food regimen. The myth has grown into a tough, governement endowed institutionalized lie, that luckily somehow starts to stagger.
It has been shown out by several serious studies on the matter, that dairy is unreliable as a source of calcium. Digesting dairy has a strong acidifying effect on the body’s tissues, it tends to erode calcium out of the bones rather than fortifying them.

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Vegan oat cookies with tea

Banana raisin oat cookies

nutrition, recipes

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and vegan

Nowadays, the world’s most succesfull body-builders and athletes are recognizing the benefits of a plant-based diet. Sometimes their switch from omnivore to plant-based is a true lifestyle transformation! They manage to get even better performance results without the discomforts of animal sourced foods. And they feel morally better now that no more animals need to suffer or die for their appetite and sports diet.

A perfect plant-based alternative

One of these athletes and nutritional advisors is Canadian Derek Simnett. You can always check out his videos and enjoy his good-humoured, warm-hearted and honest contributions. I think I may have found the base for the following recipe for healthy oat cookies on one of his webpages or in one of his videos. But I made some adaptations to make them even more healthy.
These cookies, without any added sugar, are an excellent alternative for the industrial sugar loaded cookies that are sold in supermarkets as “Breakfast cookies”. They fit perfectly into a strategy to lower the sugar content in your foods.
colate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

What you need for about 12 to 16 cookies:

  • 75 grs (1.5 cups) rolled oats, ground up into oat flour
  • 50 grs (1 cup) rolled oats (not ground)
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 30 grs (1/4 cup) sunflower seeds
  • 30 grs (1/4 cup) pumpkin seeds
  • 70 grs (2/3 – 1/2 cup) raisins, soaked overnight
  • 30 grs (2/3 cup) unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1 flax ‘egg’ (2 tbsp. ground flax seeds mixed with
    3 tbsp water)
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • Juice of 1 lemon (add just before baking)

This is how you make them a success:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
  2. Prepare flax ‘egg’ and let soak for a few minutes in small bowl.
  3. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl except the lemon juice.
  4. When all the ingredients are mixed together, add lemon juice and gently mix. Spoon mixture
    out onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 15 – 20 mins depending on cookie size.
  5. Take the cookies out of the oven off the baking sheet and let cool on a wired rack.

You can store these cookies in the refrigerator for 3-4 days in an airtight container, but I am sure you will want to finish them a lot earlier …
Enjoy!

High nutritional density

We can consider cookies like these as food with a considerably high nutritional density: relatively rich in calories and with an average moist content. The nutritional density of food can be calculated as the amount of calories per 100 grs of product. In healthy nutrition, it’s advisable to consume a lot of foods with a low nutritional density. Good examples of those are: vegetables and fruits. So we better consume these cookies with moderation.

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Overnight oats woth fruit

Oats and chia

nutrition, recipes, ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, vegan

Now here’s a really healthy and complete breakfast for lazy people. One of its advantages is that all ingredients are raw. No need to heat or cook anything. Just mix some things together the evening before, and then cut some fruit in the morning. That’s all.

What you need for one serving:

  • ca 50 grs of rolled oats
  • one and a half tablespoon of chia seeds
  • ca 200 ml of plant based milk
  • fruit of your choice

Ready in no time:

  • Pour the rolled oats and the chia seeds in a bowl, or, even better, in a glass jar that you can close.
  • Pour the plant milk over the oats and mingle well. The oats will swell as they absorb the liquid, so make sure they are well submerged.
  • Close the jar or cover the bowl and put in the refrigerator to soak for the whole night.
  • In the morning you can stir again and add some extra plant milk if the mixture looks too dry.
  • Cut up the fruit of your choice to pieces and mix in. You can top with some nuts of your choice, preferably soaked.

There you are.
This breakfast does not contain any added sugar, has a velvety soft texture and a fairly neutral taste, which enhances the flavour of the chosen fruit.
It will give you a satisfied feeling that will last for hours.
Enjoy it!

Even more protein

Do you practice power training or an intense sporting activity? Then consider this:

  • Three tablespoons of chia.
  • Soy milk for higher protein intake.
  • a generous serving of soy yogurt on top.

You can choose whatever plant based drink, like soy milk or a nut-based milk.
Nut milk can be easily home made, in the quantities that suit you. Click here for the recipe.
Are rolled oats “raw” in the strict meaning of the word? Not really. Rolled oats are oat grains that have been squashed between the rollers of a machine, hence “rolled oats”. In the process, some heat is generated. Still, it can’t be compared to boiling.
Chia seeds, are the tiny, black and white seeds of the plant with the latin name Salvia hispanica. When you soak them in water they swell by forming a jelly like layer on their outside. That’s why people sometimes use them in vegan recipes as a substitute for eggs. They are immensely popular as “superfood”.
But what’s so “super” about them? Well, they contain a lot of plant protein of very good quality, and fairly easy to digest. Furthermore, they contain a lot of fibre, a lot of omega-3 fatty acids and minerals such as calcium, phosphor, magnesium en the micronutrient copper. And also vitamins, such as B1, B3 and a remarkable lot of vitamin E.

Product Energy Carbohydrates Fats Protein Fibre
Chia seeds, per 100 grs 1832 kJ 4,9 grs 31,4 grs 21,2 grs 33,7 grs

Breakfast or no breakfast?

With breakfast I mean your first meal of the day. One can discuss whether to take a breakfast early in the morning or later that day. A lot depends on your daily activities and schedule. I had a tendency to start eating almost right after getting out of bed in the morning, but nowadays I sometimes have my first meal at 10, or 11 am, or even later. It is important to regularly grant your intestines a rest, at least 8 hours or even better 16 hours a day. That way your body is able to correctly assimilate the food and eliminate the waste. A lot of problems with overeating and overweight find their cause in the questionable habit to stuff ourselves with food, almost non-stop from the morning till the evening. Advertising and marketing constantly try to seduce us to do so. To alleviate one’s hunger is something completely different than getting addicted to the feeling of a constantly filled stomach.

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