Tag Archives: spices

Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

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I love spices. The house is still fragrant with ginger and cinnamon after this absolute winner of a cake. Enjoy this moist low carb high fibre and protein treat!Spiced Pumpkin Protein Cake with Rum Cream Cheese Frosting LCHFIngredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown keto sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream (not runny)
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree (if using your own drain very well, must not be watery)
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 cup almond flour (press into measuring cup and level)
  • ½ cup vanilla protein powder
  • ¼ cup oat fibre
  • ¼ cup coconut or peanut flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp xantham gum powder
  • 2 tblspn cinnamon powder
  • 1 tblspn ginger powder
  • 1 tsp all spice powder
  • ¼ tsp cloves (optional)
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg (optional)
  • Frosting: ¼ cup softened butter, 1½ cup cream cheese, 1 cup powdered keto sugar, 1 tsp rum essence, 1 tblspn molasses, optional

Method…<!–more–>

  1. Gently melt butter on stove and when melted stir in and dissolve keto sugar. Whisk well. Turn off heat.
  2. In a separate bowl mix together the sour cream, eggs, pumpkin puree and vanilla essence. Whisk well.
  3. In another bowl mix together all the dry ingredients, including the spices. Whisk.
  4. Add butter/sugar mix to dry mix. Will turn into light doughy texture. Don’t panic!
  5. Add egg/pumpkin/sour cream wet mix to dough and stir or beat lightly until a nice heavy cake batter. Make sure you whisk well to remove lumps.
  6. Your oven should be heated to 350⁰F.
  7. Let batter rest 5 minutes.
  8. Pour batter into a well greased large deep cake or bundt pan.
  9. Place in oven to bake and set a timer for 45 minutes.
  10. Check with a toothpick or skewer and if it comes out clean remove cake immediately from oven.
  11. Let rest 15 minutes and then turn out onto cake rack to cool.
  12. Dust with powdered keto sugar or frost with the frosting recipe.
  13. Frosting: beat together the cream cheese, powdered keto sugar, butter and add the tsp of rum essence … or real rum! (Optional molasses for flavour)
  14. When cake is completely cool spread over frosting.

This cake is utterly delicious, moist, not overly sweet and very satisfying. Be generous with the spices and frosting! Keeps well for 1 week, but if it’s warm store in refrigerator.A visit to the farmers market:

Keto Cauliflower Soul Soup

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I absolutely love cauliflower and autumn!

Cauliflower Soul Soup with a Touch of Spice

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter (4 oz, 113g)
  • 1 large or 2 small onions
  • 1 bunch of celery
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 1 thumb of fresh ginger
  • 4 to 8 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 1 tsp dill dried or fresh
  • 1 tsp herb salt
  • ½ tsp dill seeds
  • ½ tsp saffron threads
  • Chicken, beef or onion stock to cover veg, about 4 to 5 cups (1 litre)
  • ½ cup heavy cream

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Keto Hummus with black soy beans

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I wish this looked tastier but trust me, it’s delicious.

• 2 cans soy black beans (15 oz ea/425 g – 5 net carbs per ½ cup)
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp fenugreek powder- optional
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp dried or fresh mint
• ¼ tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp lemongrass turmeric paste – optional
• 1 dessert spoon tahini
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• ½ juice of a lemon and zest too
• 3 tblspn sour cream
• Few saffron threads – optional

• 1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

Blend all together and dust with mint, lemon zest, paprika and a drizzle of olive oil.

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Red Chicken Curry in Coconut Cream

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Here is a recipe I made today. If it’s winter where you live, it’s warming and hearty.One more thing, please toast your spices and then blend them – if you can. It’s worth the small effort and your nose will thank you!Ingredients

  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 1 tsp nigella seeds
  • 3 – 4 cardamom seeds
  • 4 tblspn oil or butter
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 – 2 shallots
  • 4 – 6 large chicken thighs
  • 1 tblspn garam masala
  • 1 – 3 tblspn curry (I like spicy!)
  • 2 tblspn turmeric
  • 1 tblspn chilli powder
  • 1 can coconut cream
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 4 – 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 fresh green chilli
  • 1 thumb ginger
  • 1-2 carrots or small yam
  • 2-3 zucchini
  • 3 red/yellow bell peppers
  • 2 tsp turmeric

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Keto Chile Rellenos

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This was quite an adventure to make. My partner was kindly given some peppers at the community garden by a fellow gardener. My sister gave me a fab Mexican cookbook some time ago that I love and I watched a video of an amazing woman cooking chile rellenos on a wood stove in Mexico. Both inspired me. I hope you’re inspired too!

Recipe at the bottom!

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Gingerbread Fruit Bake

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I never had fresh berries so for this recipe I used a few plums. They were not quite ripe either! Anyhow, the gist of this recipe is to bake your fruit in butter while you prep the batter. Add the light scone-like topping, flaked almonds, more spices, bake and you’re done! Delicious with a cup of coffee and topped with whipped cream.

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Spiced Keto Muffins with orange zest

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I’m beginning to think this is the only muffin recipe I’ll be using for a long while, just varying the flavours and types of nut flour I use. These are fresh out the oven to break an 8/16 fast since late lunch yesterday. Delicious slathered in butter. Just butter! I’m also convinced my favourite keto sugar is the brown version in the image below. Absolutely NO aftertaste, coolness and really tastes good. I’m not sure how I’ll bake keto sponge cakes in future, but honestly, it’s 100% the best flavour.

What we’ll be doing here – melting the butter/sugar mix gently on the stove; mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and in another bowl mix cream/nut milk/buttermilk with eggs and orange zest. Make sure to check you have some spices handy, I used a few or you can just stick with cinnamon. There are some optional things you can leave out, it will absolutely work without the optional add in’s. Makes 1 dozen muffins. Here we go:

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Tender Buttermilk Chicken Curry with Summer Veg

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We’ve had a cool start to summer, it’s been more of an extended spring. I’m not complaining as it meant I could make a late seasonal curry with some local farm chicken.

I tried slow roasting one of these chickens, but the good outdoor life made them strong, tough and healthy, just like chickens should be! Tasty but a tad chewy!

In South Africa we call these chickens “scratchy fowls” meaning they have had a free happy life, scratching in the fields for bugs. Nothing happier than the a vision of a happy scratching fowl roaming free!

So, as buttermilk tenderises chicken meat beautifully,

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Keto Empanadas

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Worth the time and these are delicious. I think a Keto version is such a win, as it’s meat wrapped in a cheese dough. I mean, how can that not be good?!

If you have leftover savoury ground beef these would be the perfect leftover plan. Also, I would suggest making the ground beef filling ahead and let it cool off completely as it’s easier to work with in the dough. Hot filling in a cheese dough is not fun to work with – I found that out as this was one of those spur of the moment “I need empanadas – after 3 years of none – in my life” now! Also let your dough chill in the fridge at least 30 minutes. It’s possible to make these in one go but you’ll see how hard it was to work with fresh warm dough and filling in my pics below.

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Battered Fried Eggplant and more snippets…

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This dish was half way prepped and my partner asked … are you blogging this recipe? I paused. He was right the last time about posting something, so I scrambled to take a few photos at the start of making this dish and he took a few too. My Mum regularly made deep fried battered eggplant/brinjal/aubergines as a veg side dish for dinner growing up and she still does!

My parents ran a successful produce market agency. They sourced vegetables and fruits directly from farmers and sold to grocers, food vendors, restaurants and the public. There were other agencies like this at the municipal market place, probably around a half dozen or less. We were fortunate that fresh vegetables and fruit were in abundance in our home. Farm to table fresh! Looking back, despite the many bags of peas and beans my sister and I had to shell or string in peak freezing season, we were truly lucky and blessed with these bounties. (Sometimes this would extend to sheep and game too, but that is a blog post for another time!) Dad sourced produce requested by restaurants from Greek to Indian, Italian and Chinese. He had an uncanny eye for exotic delicacies. So eggplants were a standard in our home long before they were commonly found on grocery shelves. Some of my friends found eating at our home either peculiar…or delicious. I was very young, but I remember Dad inviting friends to our home to show him how to make Paella and other international dishes, or going to his friends in Malabar for delicious curry, unlike anything I’ll savour again. I’m talking late 1960’s and through the 70’s here friends! Continue reading →