Simple Pink Fruit Salad (V, Vegan)

09-03-2017 Local Black Bookbreakfast, dessert, fruit, fruit salad, grapefruit, healthy, paleo, raspberry, recipe, vegan, vegetarian1 Comment

When I scroll through restaurant menus online (everyone has their passion eh?), I’m always shocked by how expensive fruit salad are. You want me to pay HOW MUCH for some chopped up fruit?? Are they made of gold or what?

And then I started making fruit salad at home and found out why that is.

Because you see, fruit salad are a bit more finicky that they seem. As it turns out, prepping fruit takes forever. Washing, drying, peeling, chopping, segmenting… There’s no shortcut to be used and the technical skills needed to make the perfect fruit platter are very demanding. Plus, unlike many desserts, fruit salad cannot be made in advance.

Pink Fruit Salad recipe | Cake + Whisky

As for many of life’s finest things, simplicity truly is the ultimate sophistication, and a beautiful fruit bowl is difficult to top for a light, refreshing breakfast or dessert. So I suppose in a way, it’s worth the premium restaurants make you pay for it.

Or you know, the effort to DIY.

If you have a little bit of extra time in the morning or last-minute guests for dinner, take the 10 or so minutes to make this delightfully simple, perfectly balanced pink fruit salad.

Despite how intricate it looks and complex it tastes, it’s actually very simple to put together.

All in all a truly grape way to start the day or end the meal on a light, colourful note!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:4]

Looking for more breakfast inspo?

Super Breakfast Yoghurt Pots

Vegan Sticky Toffee Porridge

Cranberry Oatmeal Cake

Super Breakfast Yoghurt Pots w/ Paleo Granola (V, GF)

27-02-2017 Local Black Bookbreakfast, granola, healthy, on the go, paleo, vegetarian, yoghurt pots3 Comments

As much as I looooooove porridge (especially when it tastes like cake!), there’s only so much I can have before I get bored and start crying for literally ANYTHING ELSE fo breakfast.

Which resulted in me having some rather unusual options lately. Sushi or ham & pickle sandwich at 9am anyone?

No? Then maybe those Super Breakfast Yoghurt Pots will be more your thing…

The whole ‘Super’ breakfast thing started when I spotted The Collective’s new ‘Super Berries flavour in the dairy aisle of my local supermarket.

I love The Collective’s thick ‘n’ creamy yoghurt, I love obscure berries, and a bit of ‘super’ in my life never hurts, so in my basket the tub went.

Now, The Collective’s disclaimer clearly states that the yoghurt wouldn’t give me superpowers. But there’s no harm in trying, is there?

Worse case scenario, I would be stuck with a gigantic pot of delicious, berry compote-swirled yoghurt. Which is a situation I’d volunteer as tribute for any day of the week, to be honest.

But just in case, I thought I’d better my upcoming superpower odds. So I paired the yoghurt with more fresh super berries and a bunch of other superfood bits.

I combined the latter into the most delicious paleo granola (recipe below), then layered it all into individual pots.

I also may or may not have shoved a few spoonful of warm, golden granola in my mouth in the process…

But the fact is, the resulting breakfast yoghurt pots were everything any on-the-go breakfast should be. Filling, satisfying and oh-so-super-good!

Breakfast yoghurt pots with paleo granola | Cake + Whisky

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:2]

Autumnal Quinoa Salad

07-09-2016 Local Black BookAutumn, butternut, Fall, feta, gluten-free, healthy, healthy eating, low carb, lunch, lunch box, packed lunch, paleo, pine nuts, pumpkin, quinoa, recipe, salad, savoury, vegetarian5 Comments

If I’m not all that happy to wave the Summer goodbye, I must admit there are things about Autumn I’m rather excited about.

Besides the fact that my workplace will FINALLY be turning the AC off and I won’t have to wear cashmere to avoid catching a cold in the middle of a heatwave, that is.

Top of my list is the comeback of all sorts of winter squash onto the list of seasonal fruit & veggies!

I love squashes & pumpkins of all kinds, and couldn’t help but pick up one of the first butternuts of the season at my local farmers’ market last week.

It almost ended up into my favourite soup, but a bit of fridge foraging later and this beautiful Autumnal Quinoa Salad was born…

Easy to make, healthy & super tasty, it’s the perfect dish for a light Autumn dinner or a colourful, vitamin-packed lunch!

Autumnal Quinoa Salad with Butternut, Feta & Pine Nuts (serves 2)

Ingredients:

200g quinoa (I got this pretty mixed-coloured one from Waitrose)
300g butternut squash, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp olive oil
50g crumbled feta
20g pine nuts
sea salt, cracked black pepper, oregano

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200°C (gas mark 6).

2. In a bowl, mix the slices of butternut with the olive oil, a pinch of salt, some black pepper and a generous pinch of oregano. Spread onto an oven-safe dish and bake for 35-45 minutes (or until the edges start caramelising).

3. Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil, then throw in the quinoa and cook for about 20min, then drain.

4. In a dry pan, fry the pine nut kernels until golden.

5. Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl or pile them up onto two plates, top with a little more oregano and serve immediately.

This dish can also be eaten cold, which makes it a brilliant packed lunch option as well!

PIN FOR LATER:

Cake and Whisky

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Simple Pink Fruit Salad (V, Vegan)

Looking for more breakfast inspo?

Super Breakfast Yoghurt Pots w/ Paleo Granola (V, GF)

Autumnal Quinoa Salad