The guilt-free crisps

Kale. Seems like the ingredient of the time, right? Now, I may have dismissed it a a bit of a fad, but after reading that kale contains more nutrients than any other food, I decided to give it a go and now I am OBSESSED!

I love to kale into a gorgeous rainbow salad, but my current favourite way to serve it is to roast it in the oven to create some crispy and crunchy kale crisps. They are incredibly easy to make and definitely satisfy some salty cravings every now and then. They make a yummy snack to have with some homemade houmous too!

Ingredients-

• Kale (however much you want to make!)
• A sprinkling of pink salt
• Tablespoon olive oil
• The topping of your choice (today I went with cayenne pepper, but I love cinnamon, pepper or coriander)

The Making

1. Wash your kale. Then pull the leaves away from the hard woody stems and lay flat on a baking tray. Make sure you have pre-heated your oven to 190C and have lined your baking tray.

 

Doesn't look so appetising before it goes in, but trust me-it tastes delish!

2. Top your kale with your olive oil, salt and chosen topping. Make sure that every leaf is coated well.
3. Put your kale into the oven for around 8 minutes. You want it to be darker in colour and crispy, but NOT brown or black in colour!

I have also seen an interesting recipe which involved blending sun-dried tomatoes to make a tasty topping, I definitely want to give that a go next time I have some tomatoes in my fridge!
As always, let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for other kale crisp toppings or flavours!

xx

The quick and easy houmous

The very first recipe on my blog surely has to be a cracker, right? Well, not to blow my own trumpet but this one really is! I absolutely LOVE houmous. It's one of those foods that I could never ever get bored of eating. If you were to investigate my supermarket shopping you would, without a doubt, find a few tubs of houmous sneaking their way into my shopping bag! But after having a quick read through some of the ingredients of pre-made houmous, I realised that I didn't know what half of it was, which is never good! So I decided to try making some myself, and after a few attempts (and some decidedly dodgy ones at that!), I have finally settled on a recipe that I LOVE, and make at least once a week. Feel free to change ingredients and whatnot to suit whatever you fancy!



Just a note, this recipe usually makes enough to feed me for around 5 days worth of lunches, or would be fab for some nibbles between four of you.

Ingredients-

• 1 tin of chickpeas (drained)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cayenne pepper or paprika
• 1 tablespoon water (optional)

The Making

(Yes I promise you, this is as easy as it sounds!)

1. Blend the chickpeas in a food processor or hardcore blender (note to self, buy a better blender!), until they are whatever texture you are going for. Personally I air on the side of chunky!
2. Then add in all your dry ingredients and blend again.
3. Finally, mix in your wet ingredients and give it a final blend!
4. At this stage you may want to add in some water if you prefer a smoother texture.
5. That's it! The whole thing took me less than 2 minutes, and I probably managed to eat a bowl full in a similar time.

So now you can enjoy your ridiculously quick and easy bowl of houmous. I love to serve this with a rainbow coloured bowl of vege- think carrots, celery, peppers and radish, although I am also partial to some crackers to dunk in.

Remember that this is only a basic houmous recipe, there are lots of ways you can spice this up a bit! My current favourites are beetroot and mint, Moroccan spices and pesto.

Please let me know if you try this recipe, and if you have any suggestions for new flavours I could try!

xx