Public Service Announcement

Ok, listen up y’all – this is a really, really, really important announcement.

I AM SORRY

That’s right, this is a public apology. I am sorry - very sorry.

As I was typing out the recipe for my paleo pumpkin pie, I had a horrifying realisation. It suddenly occurred to me that there's been a bit of a theme running through my blog of late; that many of my posts are ‘sweet treats’; and that if you stumbled across The Secret Diary of a Kitchen Ninja, you could quite conceivably be convinced that we eat this kind of food all the time, and that it’s ok to do so.

That evening, it dawned on me that I may have unintentionally been misleading you all – fueling a false belief that as long as it’s paleo, it’s good for you.

Well folks, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not true. Treats are still treats, even if they’re ‘cleaner’ than their Neolithic counterparts. These paleo treats are usually sweetened (even if it is done using fruit, honey, or pure maple syrup, rather than refined sugar) and high in carbohydrates. They are not bad for you as such, but they should be occasional treats, eaten in small quantites…not whipped up every night and eaten in batch-loads!

Believe it or not, we don’t actually eat this kind of food very frequently. I guess I post the recipes because they seems more ‘special’ to me than the dishes I throw together every day. I don’t make them often, so they seem more exciting, and more likely to appeal to all of you. I need to change this.

This is the sort of food you should be eating every day;

the sort of food that fuels your body and your training.

This is real food:

From now on, I will endeavour to post more recipes for this kind of food, and just treat you, the readers, (and maybe myself!) to the occasional sweet treat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I'm not American & I don't celebrate Thanksgiving...although I do think it's a pretty cool idea. But I do like the flavours of pumpkin pie - that mix of sweet (but not too sweet), savoury, and warm spices - so I made up a primal one a little while ago. I never got around to posting it though, so now seems as good a time as any! Unfortunately, I wrote down the ingredients but forgot to note down what I actually did with them, so I'll just have to do my best to remember...

Primal Pumpkin Pie

For the base
2C almond meal
1/2C dessicated coconut
25 dates
1 Tbsp almond butter
A dash of cold water

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until it forms a sticky dough. If it's too crumbly, add a little more water and mix again until you reach the right consistency.

Press dough into a greased flan tin (with removable base). Refrigerate until filling is ready.

For the filling

3C pumpkin, cooked & mashed
1C coconut cream
2 eggs
1 banana, mashed
1 ½ tsp mixed spice
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground vanilla
2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp chia seeds

Beat all ingredients except the chia seeds together (I used a cake mixer for this), then stir in the chia seeds.

Chill for a while! (I would suggest at least an hour, so that the chia seeds absorb some of the moisture. Longer is better).

Once the filling has begun to thicken, pour into the base and cook at 180 degrees celcius. I think this took about 20-30 minutes, but you want the base to be golden and the filling to be set.

If you're feeling particularly naughty, this tastes great with cream whipped with maple syrup!

It also works well as little tartlets (using a muffin tin instead of a flan tin).

'Cos everyone loves a good tart!

I was going to write something inspiring (or at least attempt to), but I'm way too tired to inspire myself, let alone you lot too! These tarts were pretty inspired though...

Chili chocolate tarts

For the crust

(adapted slightly from this recipe)

1 C ground almonds

1 C dessicated coconut

¼ tsp ground vanilla pods

1 pinch of salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ C coconut oil

1 tbsp honey (you could probably leave this out)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.

Melt oil and honey together in a saucepan. Add to dry ingredients and stir thoroughly.

Press a thin layer into greased (I used olive oil) muffin tins.

Bake at 180 degrees for approx 6 minutes, or until golden.

Leave to cool completely in tin.

For the filling

(also informed by the above recipe, but I didn't want to use chocolate, so I changed it up a bit...well, quite a lot...)

2 ripe bananas

1 ripe avocado

½ C cocoa

1 can coconut milk

¼ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp chili powder

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp arrowroot

Combine bananas, avocado and cocoa in a food processor.

Heat coconut milk, vanilla extract, chili powder and cinnamon over low heat, stirring often, until boiling. Remove from heat and pour into bowl of cake mixer (or a mixing bowl, if you’re using a hand whisk). 

Add arrowroot and quickly whisk thoroughly (if you don’t do this quickly, you’ll get lumps). Add chocolate mixture and whisk again. 

Chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Once filling is chilled and crust is completely cool, pour filling into the tarts crusts then refrigerate (in the tin) until filling is completely set. These were actually best the next day.

When ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of each tart to loosen.

(I had lots of leftover filling, so you might want to double the crust recipe or halve the filling recipe. Alternatively, the filling works great as a stand-alone chocolate mousse!)