Vegetable Potato Pancakes

I went to the Saturday market and saw this huge light green vegetable. It was called Dudhi. My market vendor said it could be used in a stir fry. Never had it, but for $2.50 it doesn't hurt to try it.
Dudhi is in the same category as zucchini. It's like a nutty flavored squash with huge white seeds. The skine is thin and edible.
I LOVE potato pancakes. So, decided to do a vegetable version chocked with dudhi, red onion, carrots and herbs. This isn't your mom's potato pancake, and its awesome!

Vegetable Potato Pancakes
3 cups of dudhi, grated
2 potatoes, grated
1 carrot, grated
1/2 red onion, grated
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Mix all the vegetables together. Mix the flour and spices, pour over the vegetables. Add egg and a little water till just combined, like a thick paper maché paste. Cover the bottom of  a medium pan with canola oil over a medium heat. Spoon mixture into pan and fry on each side till golden brown. 

Vegan Slow Cooker Stew

As some of you may remember I was very sick a couple of weeks back and I have yet to get back into the swing of things. The house is a mess, cooking healthy has taken a back seat to eating something so that I can take my antibiotics, and junk food has reared it's ugly head. I went to the supermarket and bought four kinds of beans. My objective? To make a tasty vegan stew to eat over rice, cou cou, couscous, whatever.  The point, make alot and stop eating the junk food. There are a lot of recipes out there but I didn't want to follow anything specific. I had three requirements.

1. Use what I had on hand.

2. Use fresh herbs.

3. Finish it with coconut milk.

I wanted all the flavor to come from the fresh ingredients and create a take on the coconut curries of India and Thailand. 

This came out better than I could have imagined. Rich and flavorful, especially with the addition of the coconut milk at the end. Beautiful! Ok... on to the recipe

5 kinds of beans 

(I used lentil, split pea, chick peas, blackeyed and black beans. I used dry. So it was necessary to soak the chickpeas and blackeyed over night, before hand)

1 carrot grated

1 onion minced

2 sweet peppers chopped.

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 tomatoes cut up

1 stalk of celery cut up

Broccoli, small chop

Scotch Bonnet pepper

Rosemary
Grated fresh Turmeric

Thyme

Basil

Tarragon

2 Vegetable boullion cubes

Tomato paste

Salt & pepper

Coconut Milk

Put everything into the slow cooker except coconut milk. Cover the mixture with water and cover lid. Turn the slow cooker on high for 6 hours. At the half way mark, stir it up and remove scotch bonnet pepper. Cover. At the 30 min mark add coconut milk, stir and cover until done.

If you want to add meat to this (cause you can) Just add 1/2 lb of seasoned ground beef or turkey mix to the mixture and omit the coconut milk at the end. :)

Homemade Banana Coconut Granola

I recently went to the supermarket with a friend of mine. As we were leaving she exclaimed "Oh I have to get granola for the kids!". We walked to the cereal aisle to find the fancy bags of granola. Small bags, beautiful packaging, and high prices. I asked her why she buys granola at these prices and she answered the way most mother's answer, "It's something healthy that the kids actually like."
But how healthy is it? Just because it has eco-friendly packaging and says ORGANIC across the label doesn't mean it's healthy.
I love the explosion of "organic" shelf stable food. If you know like I know, then you know that the things they have to add to the product to make it shelf stable negates the organic properties the item once had. To be organic is to be perishable. Point blank.
Back to my friend. I asked her what was in this pricey granola. We looked at the package. Oats, dried fruit, and nuts. In Barbados, nuts can be pricey, but everything else, super cheap. Lets not talk about the high sugar content. How do we combat this? Make your own of course. Granola is easy to make and can be made with left over items. Oats, dried fruit, coconut, nuts, fruit chips, etc. Here is my recipe for Banana Coconut Granola. This is a nice recipe with a great texture and great taste.You can use this as a guide and add to or subtract at your leisure. If you remove the banana you would use about 1 cup of mixed fruit and increase the agave by 2 more tbsp.

3 cups of oats
1/2 cup of almonds
1/2 cup of pecans
1/2 cup of grated coconut
3 tbsp of raw sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 mashed bananas
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbps of agave, maple, or honey

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients up to the cinnamon. Mix well and set aside. In a separate bowl mix the mashed bananas, vanilla, agave and coconut oil. Mix well. Pour over the oats mixture. Mix well and place on to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes. Until dry and crumbly. Be sure to check and stir you granola midway through the baking process