Homemade Chai Tea (Latte)
Ingredients
3 cups water
1 stick of cinnamon
20 cardamom pods
20 whole cloves
2 Darjeeling tea bags
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/3 cup soy milk
Directions
Bring to boil water, cinnamon, cardamom pods, and whole cloves.
Cover & simmer in low heat for 10 min.
Turn off heat and add the tea bags, brew for 2 minutes.
Remove the tea bags and mix in the sugar.
If you're ready to serve, add soy milk and serve immediately.
Otherwise, refrigerate the tea.
Showing posts with label Simple Non-Dairy Recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simple Non-Dairy Recipes. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Homemade Maple Almond Butter
one day, i had this wild idea of making my own peanut butter. since we are in love with our Ninja Kitchen System, i figured i would give it a try. needless to say, my peanut butter (honey peanut butter) was delicious.
so naturally (har har), i figured i would take the next big step and try to make the (*gasp*) almond butter. i got the idea from Justin's Maple Almond Butter, which is sold in regular grocery stores. Their almond butters have very basic ingredients, which is exactly what i prefer in any of my food. so if you don't want to make your own almond butter, Justin's is definitely a great alternative.
aaaaaaaanyway, my first few batches were not so pretty. they were yummy, of course, but it was very tough to spread. to describe the end result, they were like... silly putty except they were thicker and tougher to spread out. i didn't know what it could be until i read the ingredients on Justin's bottle again - they added Palm Oil!
of course!
Almond butter on its own has enough oil to keep it smooth; however, once you add salt and maple syrup, the butter "seizes up" and becomes putty. but no worries, a little bit(?) of oil will help relax the butter and make it smoother, once again. for this recipe, i used 2:1 ratio for oil to maple syrup. i tried 1:1 but that failed... miserably. 1.5:1 may work if you want to use less oil.
below is the recipe that i used for my latest batch. i may have to edit it a bit later, but for now, i think it works. and just as an FYI, we like our almond butter a bit on the salty & sweet side. So if you prefer a regular almond butter, then you won't even need to add any of the other ingredients. if you prefer less salty & less sweet, just cut the maple syrup & salt by 1 TSP and 1 TBS, respectively. and if you cut down the syrup by 1 TBS, you can probably cut down the oil by 1 TBS as well.
Recipe for Maple Almond Butter
3 Cups Almond, toasted
4 TBS Oil (i used Grape Seed Oil because i didn't like the Olive Oil scent in my Almond Butter)
2 TSP Kosher Salt (less if you don't want it too salty)
2 TBS Maple Syrup
Toasting the almond
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread the almonds in a large cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 min. Remove the sheet and cool on a cooling rack to room temperature.
Making the almond butter
In your food processor (i used Ninja Food Processor), place toasted almonds and run on high (Ninja setting 3, "Crush") for 5-10 minutes, depending on the processor power, until the almonds have been turned into a paste. Run the processor for few more minutes until the oils have been released. (You will be able to see the gloss on the paste.) Once the paste seems smoother & glossier (and turns into a "butter"), add the oil and blend until the oil is mixed in. At this point, the butter should be nice and smooth. Add the salt and blend until it is mixed in. Lastly, add the syrup in low power. As soon as you add the maple syrup, you will probably notice that the butter texture stiffens ("seizes up"). Make sure the syrup is mixed in well.
my Ninja does all the work for me, and all i need to do is to watch the processor for about 10 minutes & add the ingredients towards the end. it's one of the easiest things to make, but i just couldn't find a recipe for it anywhere other than a basic almond butter... so i hope this recipe comes handy to whoever comes across my blog. :)
so naturally (har har), i figured i would take the next big step and try to make the (*gasp*) almond butter. i got the idea from Justin's Maple Almond Butter, which is sold in regular grocery stores. Their almond butters have very basic ingredients, which is exactly what i prefer in any of my food. so if you don't want to make your own almond butter, Justin's is definitely a great alternative.
aaaaaaaanyway, my first few batches were not so pretty. they were yummy, of course, but it was very tough to spread. to describe the end result, they were like... silly putty except they were thicker and tougher to spread out. i didn't know what it could be until i read the ingredients on Justin's bottle again - they added Palm Oil!
of course!
Almond butter on its own has enough oil to keep it smooth; however, once you add salt and maple syrup, the butter "seizes up" and becomes putty. but no worries, a little bit(?) of oil will help relax the butter and make it smoother, once again. for this recipe, i used 2:1 ratio for oil to maple syrup. i tried 1:1 but that failed... miserably. 1.5:1 may work if you want to use less oil.
below is the recipe that i used for my latest batch. i may have to edit it a bit later, but for now, i think it works. and just as an FYI, we like our almond butter a bit on the salty & sweet side. So if you prefer a regular almond butter, then you won't even need to add any of the other ingredients. if you prefer less salty & less sweet, just cut the maple syrup & salt by 1 TSP and 1 TBS, respectively. and if you cut down the syrup by 1 TBS, you can probably cut down the oil by 1 TBS as well.
Recipe for Maple Almond Butter
3 Cups Almond, toasted
4 TBS Oil (i used Grape Seed Oil because i didn't like the Olive Oil scent in my Almond Butter)
2 TSP Kosher Salt (less if you don't want it too salty)
2 TBS Maple Syrup
Toasting the almond
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread the almonds in a large cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 min. Remove the sheet and cool on a cooling rack to room temperature.
Making the almond butter
In your food processor (i used Ninja Food Processor), place toasted almonds and run on high (Ninja setting 3, "Crush") for 5-10 minutes, depending on the processor power, until the almonds have been turned into a paste. Run the processor for few more minutes until the oils have been released. (You will be able to see the gloss on the paste.) Once the paste seems smoother & glossier (and turns into a "butter"), add the oil and blend until the oil is mixed in. At this point, the butter should be nice and smooth. Add the salt and blend until it is mixed in. Lastly, add the syrup in low power. As soon as you add the maple syrup, you will probably notice that the butter texture stiffens ("seizes up"). Make sure the syrup is mixed in well.
my Ninja does all the work for me, and all i need to do is to watch the processor for about 10 minutes & add the ingredients towards the end. it's one of the easiest things to make, but i just couldn't find a recipe for it anywhere other than a basic almond butter... so i hope this recipe comes handy to whoever comes across my blog. :)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Non-Dairy Veggie Quiche Cups
i realized that i am extremely grateful that my son, J, is not (highly) allergic to caseine (one of two milk proteins that causes dairy allergy). It is very fortunate indeed, as so MANY good looking recipes involve... you guessed it... cheese. And if you look closely at the ingredient list for any of the cheese substitutes (ie. soy cheese or rice cheese), they all contain caseine. Oh so sneaky, aren't they?
Any local grocery stores sell at least one type of soy cheese, if not more. If you have Whole Foods near you, they carry a lot more variety, which helps with cooking different recipes. So i purchased a block of soy cheddar cheese to make some mac & cheese for my son. Unfortunately, he wasn't too excited about it so i ended up eating them (it was actually quite good!). But i digress.
Great thing about this quiche cup recipe is that i can make a batch of them and freeze them for a later use. i really hope my little boy will like these, because i don't want to end up eating 12 quiche cups with soy cheese... i prefer the real deal. heehee.
Quiche Cups with Egg, Onion, Roasted Bell Peppers, broccoli , and soy cheese
(Recipe modified from "Recipes under 400")
5 eggs, beaten
1 Cup broccoli, boiled and blanched
1/4 Cup roasted bell peppers, chopped
1/4 Cup onion, finely chopped
3/4 Cup shredded or chopped soy cheese
Spray a 12-muffin tray with cooking spray. (i used silicone muffin cups and sprayed with my Misto spray.)
Combine the veggies & cheese together in a large bowl.
Add the eggs into the veggie & cheese mix and spoon them into the muffin cups.
Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes "or if it passes the "toothpick" test by inserting a clean toothpick into a quiche and it comes out clean. Mine had to be baked for 30+ minutes.
it surely was yummy, so i hope J likes them as much as i do.
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