Month: November 2013

B’s Crunchy Chickpea Bites

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I’ve been reading about roasted chickpeas online as a healthy snack and have been meaning to try them forever.  The final push was when I saw a post by Celeste and thought OK,  I should give it a go!  Her recipe was completely different than mine but i might try hers out too!  I made mine a bit spicy and with indian infused flavours 🙂  It came out delish so much so that I forgot to take a picture of the final product.  I will add it to this post when I re-make it.  This just goes to say how yummy it was that I was completely thrown off-track.

Benefits of Chickpeas:

  • High Fibre content
  • Contains Iron
  • Source of Protein
  • Contains Manganese
  • Low GI-index, controls sugar and keeps you full longer (good for weight loss too!)

These are few motivating factors for you to consumer chickpeas as a vegetarian!

Here’s what I did:

ImageMixed all the flavours on dry chickpeas…

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Lay them out on a baking sheet, making sure they don’t overlap… BAKE AWAY AND EAT!

B’s Crunchy Chickpea Bites

Makes: One big bowl

Ingredients:

  • 1 can chickpeas  (drained, washed and dried)
  • 1/2 tsp oil
  • Flavourings: 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, salt & pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 200 C.
  2. Wash the chickpeas and drain them.  Dry thoroughly on paper towel.
  3. Mix chickpeas with flavourings and oil.
  4. Roast for 35 – 45 minutes, depending on how crunchy you want it.  (I roasted mine for 40 mins)

Notes:  Make sure the chickpeas are DRY.  If not it would result in the bites being soggy rather than crunchy!!

Enjoy this fibre-rich low fat snack!  It’s much better than munching on crisps and gives you similar satisfaction 🙂

xx

B

Easy Fresh Home-made Artisan Bread…!

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We have stopped buying bread in our house and I make it instead.  When I told my brother, he implied I have become a miser. It was pretty funny comment, I was like huh?  NO!  I don’t bake bread to save money. YES, it is a cheaper alternative but really switching to home-made bread is not going to get me haute couture with the saving!  I would need to bake 20000 loaves to justify a LV bag (I’m not into justifying my purchases btw!) hahaha.  Why do I bake bread?  It’s so tasty and so easy. Usually yeast creeps me out.  I have yeast-o-phobia – the whole bubbling process makes me sick.  However,  I came across this recipe and the simplicity of it made me want to try it.  The recipe was adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes!  I changed the flour from all-purpose to strong white as that’s what I had on hand.  I loved it!  Will be trying multi-seed next time.

Advantages of home-made bread:

  • YUMMY (most important!)
  • Healthy – the recipe has zero oil.  Compare this 4-ingredient bread recipe to any store-bought that has 20 ingredients which are unnecessary! (It’s alarming if you read the ingredient list)
  • Cost-effective (20000 loaves baked can buy you an LV BAG LOL)
  • Your house will smell of fresh bread…Mmmmmm.

WARNING:  AFTER BAKING THIS, THERE’S NO GOING BACK!! A picture of my beautiful baked loaf…

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Doesn’t that just look gorgeous?  The first time I baked it, I was amazed too.  How can something that simple to whip up, be that mouth-watering? Hmmmmm….

Here are a few snaps to demonstrate how I made it…

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Mix the ingredients together for 2 minutes… Flour, Yeast, Salt and Lukewarm Water.  Amazingly easy. 😉

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Cover with a foil and keep it away for 5 hours.

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After 5 hours, it will look like this!  It’s extremely slimy to work with (on the first day)… But this is the dough!

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Yummy… Bread slices pan fried. OMG. I have died and gone to heaven at this point.

I am typing this recipe by memory btw!  This emphasises on how easy it is, and how often I bake it!

EASY HOME-MADE ARTISAN BREAD

Makes: Enough 2 big loaves or 3 small loaves

Ingredients:

  • 6 1/2 cup strong white flour
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons coarse sea salt
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
  • 3 cups lukewarm water

Method:

  1. Mix wall the ingredients together with a wooden spoon in a big bowl (as it will double in size later)
  2. Cover with a foil for 5 hours.
  3. Use a knife to divide dough into half (I’d recommend a day after as it’s slimy on the first day!  Hard to work with, but not impossible!)
  4. Form a ball and cover with flour.
  5. Grease a small roasting tin with butter and place dough there for half an hour.
  6. Preheat oven to 235 C.
  7. With a knife cut 3 lines in the bread (so air can escape while baking!).  Also dust a bit of flour for aesthetics.
  8. Bake for 33-34 mins and leave to cool on a wire rack.  Place some water (about 1 cup) in another roasting tin and put beneath the bread.

Notes:  The dough can stay in the fridge in an airtight container for 2 weeks!  I’ve personally only tried till a week as my husband loves bread!  I prefer making the dough a day in advance as I find the dough much easier to work with.