Protein Pumpkin-Pie Porridge with Puffed Pumpkinseeds & Pecans

Protein Pumpkin Pie Porridge with Puffed Pumpkinseeds and maple roasted Pecans. I guess I just broke the record for recipe with most P's. Congrats to me. 

No seriously my friends, this has been one of the best oatmeals I have had in ma life.

By adding pumpkin to your breakfast you're not only eating veggies for breakfast (mum will be so proud of you) but you are also getting the most beautiful oatmeal flavour wise (it's sweet) and structure wise (it's fluffy).

The egg white binds the porridge together and adds protein. The puffed pumpkin seeds add great texture and I love their roasted flavour. The maple roasted peccans? Get them far away.
They are so yummy they are not safe around me.

Your toppings can also add to the protein level: by choosing a (low fat) high protein type of yoghurt such as Skyr, Greek yoghurt or quark for example. Flavourwise it is not neccesary to add the mixed hemp- / lin- / chiseeds but again: these add protein just like the pumpkinseeds, nutbutter and roasted peccans.

Happy cooking guys.

Love,

Fleur

Ingredients:

 Porridge:

• 30 gr oats 
• 1 egg white 
• 1/2 - 1 date
• 75-100 ml coconut milk
• 100 gr cooked / roasted pumpkin 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamom
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin spice / gingerbread spice
• 1 tblsp (mixed) hempseeds / chiaseeds / linseeds (optional)

Puffed Pumpkinseeds:

• handful of pumpkinseeds

Candied pecans:

• 20 gr pecans
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp coconut oil

Add-ons:

• 2 scoops of low fat Greek yogurt / Skyr / low fat quark / coconut yogurt
• handful toasted coconut chips
• 1 tblsp all natural  almond butter / peanut butter

Method:

Add the pumpkin seeds to a dry (no oil) frying pan on medium heat. Bake the seeds for about 1-2 minutes until you hear them pop. Take of the heat and let them cool down (roasting the pumpkin seeds gives an amazing flavour!)

To make the candied pecans: add pecans and coconut oil in a frying pan. Roast them for about 10 minutes on low heat until golden and beautiful roasted. (Make sure the nuts are covered equally with coconut oil when it has melted).

Take the nuts of the heat and add maple syrup to the frying pan. Shake it around until all the nuts are coated with the syrup. Let the nuts cool on a clean surface (not in the pan or they will burn).

To make the porridge: blend the milk together with the date and cooked/roasted pumpkin. 

Add to a pan together with the oats, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, vanilla and optional seeds. Bring to a soft boil stirring regularly and let it bubble for about 1-2 minutes.

When nearly done: add the egg white and keep stirring for a minute more until the egg has mixed completely with the oats and has cooked through (you should see bits of cooked egg white, no more see through egg). You should have a beautiful thick and fluffy oatmeal.

Pour in a bowl or a deep plate and top with Skyr (or other low fat / high protein yogurt), puffed pumpkinseeds, maple pecans and optional toasted coconut flakes and nutbutter. 

Almondmilk Almond Porridge with Almondbutter, Almond Yoghurt & Maple Almonds

Oh my god. I have had the idea for an almond themed porridge in my head for a very long time. It started simple, with normal oat-based porridge cooked in almond milk as a base, topped with some nice simple almonds. But the idea grew bigger and bigger and turned out into this EXTREME ALMOND PORRIDGE galore.

I love it.

By boiling the almond flour you get a beautiful fluffy porridge structure, the egg white helps to bind all of it together, improves the thick fluffness and adds protein. It looks exactly like normal oatmeal!

You can add any fruit you like but if you make this porridge in winter time, add persimmon! They are big, juicy and cheap at the moment and go great with all of the almond flavours that are going on.

Almond butter and those addicting maple roasted almonds are a great topping but in my opinion the real stars that make this dish are the almond yoghurt and almond extract:

I'm using Abbot Kinneys newest addition: Almond Start. It's yoghurt that is made from actual almonds (wait, what, how?! Made by combining ground almonds, water and yoghurt cultures and bacteria you get almond yoghurt). I recommend using the same yoghurt or any other actual natural made almond yoghurt. So no almond flavoured yoghur  that is usually stuffed with added sugars.

While shopping in one of my favourite cooking shops I stumbled upon the amazing assorment of Nielsen Massey. They make beautiful natural extracts (buy online / cooking shops / good supermarkets) of orange, coffee, mint, lemon etc. The bottles are quite expensive (about 7 euros for a 60 ml bottle) but you only need a very little amount of it so you can use it many times. The taste is absolutely worth it. This almond porridge tastes good without it but if you want actual almond flavour you need this in your life.

Not persuaded yet? It tastes like marzipan. There.

p.s. if this porridge is too extreme for you, use normal oats to make the porridge and skip the almond extract. Not reccomended though!

Love,

Fleur

Ingredients:

Almond Porridge:

• 1 tblsp almond flour 
• 20 gr shredded coconut
• 1 egg
• 100 ml unsweetened (roasted) almond milk
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp natural almond extrac
• good pinch of cinnamon

Toppings:

• 1 heaping tblsp almond butter
• fruit, of choice
• 100 gr natural (Abbot Kinneys) almond yoghurt 

Almond brittle:

• 20 gr almonds
• 1/2 tsp coconut oil
• 2 tsp maple syrup

Method:

To make the maple roasted almonds: add the coconut oil and almonds in a frying pan and roast for approx. 10 minutes on low heat until golden. (Make sure the almonds are equally covered with coconut oil when it has melted).

Add the maple syrup to the pan and shake it around until all of the almonds are covered with it.

Take the almonds out of the pan immediately and let them cool down.

To make the porridge: add milk, almond flour, shredded coconut in a different pan, put on medium heat and bring to a soft boil stirring regularly.

When it has thickened a little bit, add the egg white. Stir until the egg white has combined with the almond porridge and is completely cooked through (you should not be able to see any uncooked egg floating around any more).

Take the almond porridge of the heat. Stir cinnamon, maple syrup and almond extract through the porridge. Taste, add more maple syrup if not sweet enough.

Top with maple roasted almonds, almond butter, fruit, almond yoghurt and optional more cinnamon. 

• 
  

Baked & Loaded Sweet Potato Breakfast

Eating veggies for breakfast? Yes please.

You can make endless variations with this recipe here! Use whatever is in season and whatever you have hanging around in your kitchen cupboard.

Think about using different kinds of yoghurt, nuts and fruit. You can even add some dried fruits such as raisins and dates... Super good as well.

Have fun with this recipe!

 


Servings: serves 1

Total time: + 40 minutes

Bake time: 30-40 minutes
Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-big sized sweet potato (200-300 gr)
• few scoops of low fat quark / low fat Greek yoghurt / coconut yoghurt
• pinch of cinnamon
• 1 tblsp natural peanutbutter / almond butter
• 20 gr almonds / peccans / walnuts / cashews / pistachios
• mixed hempseeds / flaxseeds / chiaseeds / cacaonibs / goyiberries (all optional)
• 1 banana, sliced (or other fruit)
• small handfull of toasted coconut flakes
• few mint leaves, chopped
• 1-2 tsp maple syrup

Method:

1. Wash the sweet potato, leave the skin on.

2. Poke some holes in the sweet potato using a fork (this prevents the potato from exploding in the oven).

3. Bake the sweet potato in a preheated oven at 175-200 degrees C for about 30-40 minutes until the sweet potato is soft inside. 

*Tip: I baked the sweet potato the night before while preparing dinner because I usually don't have so much time in the morning. If you do this: heat the potato again in the morning in the microwave.

4. Slice the potato lengthwise halfway through.

5. Stuff the potato with the sliced banana, nuts, mint, seeds and scoop the yoghurt and nutbutter on top and drizzle maple syrup all over. Sprinkle the sweet potato with cinnamon and enjoy. 

Dutch-Canadian Maple & Oat Apple Pie with Peccans

Ingredients:

Apple pie:

• 150 gr + 50 gr good quality coconut oil 
• 80-100 gr maple syrup (to taste)
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract / powder 
• zest + juice of 1 organic lemon
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp gingerbread spice
• seasalt
• 3 eggs
• 50 gr wholegrain speltlour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125 gr oats
• 500-700 gr apple (about 3-5 apples)
• 50 gr raisins
• 40 gr peccans

Coconut-Maple whipped cream:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 Tblsp maple syrup
• small squeeze of lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven on 190 degrees C.

First make the base of the apple pie: blend the oats together with the 150 gr coconut oil (no need to melt it), maple syrup, lemon zest, cinnamon, gingerbread spice, seasalt, spelt flour and baking powder. 

At last add vanilla extract and eggs and mix until well combined.

Line a cake tin with greaseproof paper and grease the sides with some coconut oil.

Pop the base dough onto the cake tin and press it down using your finger tips or the flat side of a spoon. Make a slight edge for the apples.

Wash the apples (no need to take off the peel but you can if you want) and either cut into 1 cm cubes, slides or grate it using a box grater or kitchen machine. Combine with raisins, some extra cinnamon and a small squeeze of lemon juice.

Pop the apple-raisin mixture onto the crust, make sure the apples are at the same height as the crust.

Sprinkle the peccans over the surface of the pie and pop it into the oven. You might want to put the cake tin on top of some silver foil to prevent coconut oil from leaking on your oven bottom (happened to me and it makes a mess).

Divide the 50 gr of coconut oil into chunks over the surface of the pie. This is for extra firmness once the pie is baked. Otherwise the apple chunks might fall apart when you cut the pie.

Bake for around 50-60 minutes.

Take out the solid part of the coconut milk can and combine with the other coconut whipped cream ingredients.

Serve the apple pie with a dollop of coconut whipped cream.

Healthy Snack Bar Review: Doctor's Orders

I enjoy making my own healthy bars or snacks to have as a quick breakfast or snack on the go. But I don't always have time or the ingredients to do so. Those are the times that I am so thankful that there are so many healthy snack options available in kiosks and supermarkets nowadays.

Doctor's Orders bars are the new kids in healthy bar town. In the last few years or so I have seen such a giantic rise in amount of companies and brands selling healthy snacks on the go. I have (and still am) trying as many different bars as possible. In these reviews I will let you know what I think about them.

Flavours

Doctor's Orders has 3 different flavours at the moment:

-Nuts & Vanilla

-Cranberry & Orange

-Cacao & Nuts

Ingredients & Nutritional Value

First let's take a look at the ingredients. These are the ingredients all three bars have in common:

18% wholegrain wheat flour

rasins

chicory root fibre

oat bran

grass butter

barn chicken egg

baking yeast

wheat germs

crushed linseeds

sourdough cultures

malted wheat flour

Bourbon vanilla

seasalt

These are the ingredients that differ per bar.

1. Nuts & Vanilla - 147 calories p/bar :

26% Nuts (pecans, almonds in coat, cashews, hazlenuts in coat)

4% honey

2. Cranberry & Orangem- 127 calories p/bar:

14% dried cranberries (51% dried cranberry, apple juice concentrate)

apricots

nuts (almonds, hazlenuts)

0,7 % orange peel

0,7 % concentrated cranberry juice

oange blossom water

4% honey

3. Cacao & Nuts - 150 calories p/bar:

11% pure cacao

2% honey 

17% nuts (pecans, almonds, hazlenuts, cashews)

rasped coconut

cayenne pepper

Wait, what is going on?!

The bars contain chicory root fibre. Sounds scary? It isn't. Chicory root fibre, also known as inulin, is just a type of plantbased fibre. Which, if you have any knowledge about digestion is a good thing!

Tips

The bars tend to be a little bit dry, the basic Nuts & Vanilla more than the others.

Some of my 'testpanel' thought that the bars are not sweet enough, but for me they are perfectly good. 

Tops

What I especially like about these bars is that they are different from other healthy bars. 90% of wholesome bars in the supermarket are made out of mainly dates which makes them very much like one another.

Another top: Doctor's Orders only uses good quality ingredients such as Bourbon vanilla, grass butter and barn eggs. That is something that I really respect in companies especially young ones like Doctor's Orders.

The bars are refined sugar free, only using natural sweeteners such as honey and dried fruit. Even the dried cranberries are preserved in a natural way using fruit juice concentrate (many brands do use refined sugar for this process). On top of this they also contain only whole grains. This prevents your bloodsugar from rising sky high making it a great snack.

What I also like about these bars is that they only contain around 150 calories per par, unlike some of the 'healthy' bars around that contain nearly 300 calories per snack. This makes Doctor's Orders bars a healthy choice in my opinion.

Favourite 1-3

1. Cacao & Nuts
2. Cranberry & Orange
3. Nuts & Vanilla

Canadian Style Steel Cut Oat Maple Porridge & Peccans

Oh Canada, I think I loveeeee ya. I has been a week now since I'm back from maple syrup country, my second visit to British Colombia (Vancouver and Whistler) was a blessing. I had such a good time. I must say that I really like the Canadian quisine! It is very wholesome in my opinion with good grains, fresh fish, loads of dried fruits and nuts and of course that amazing Canadian maple syrup. 

For me this is porridge Canadian style to the max.. Everywhere I went and ordered porridge for breakfast this is what it looked like more or less with dried cranberries and raisins and of course that golden maple syrup.

Another feature that I found striking about porridge in Canada: everywhere I went they served steel cut oats instead of regular oatmeal or oatflakes. Which I love and what you can't really find in the Netherlands (yet).

Enjoy guys, i'm sure you will because this is a treat!

X Fleur

Ingredients:

• 40 gr steel cut oats (or use regular oatflakes / oatmeal)
• some water (see method)
• 150-200 ml unsweetened almond milk (or use soymilk, rice-coconutmilk. water)
• good pinch of cinnamon
• small hand dried cranberries
• small hand raisins
• small hand fresh forest berries (or blueberries)
• 30 gr peccans
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 tblsp Canadian maple syrup
• small dollop of thick low fat (Greek) yoghurt

Method:

Put the steel cut oats in a bowl and cover with water. Put the bowl in the fridge and let the grains soak overnight (this will short the cooking time but it is not neccesary if you forgot to do this)

Next morning, drain the oats and give them a quick wash until the water runs clean. Add to a pan with the milk and let it cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the oats are properly cooked (if you are using normal oats, prepare them how you normally would in the microwave or on the stove).

Melt the coconut oil (I use the microwave) and mix it with the peccans and 1 tsp of the maple syrup.

Roast the peccans on low to medium heat in a frying pan until golden (be careful they don't burn!) When they are done, take off the heat and let them cool (they get crispy when they cool and taste better than when eaten hot). (You could also roast them in the oven: about 10 minutes on 175 degrees C).

When the porridge is cooked, add a good pinch of cinnamon and the other 2 tsp of maple syrup.

Pour the porridge in a bowl and top with dried cranberries, raisins forest- or blueberries, peccans, small dot of thick low fat yoghurt and additional cinnamon.

Sunshine Curcuma Coconut & Cashew Oats

I think this is a super winter breakfast bowl. It is warming and healing (thank you curcuma) but also very uplifting and refreshing due to the beautiful yellow colour (again thank you curcuma) and slight acidity of the lemon, while remaining very sweet (thank you date).

Curcuma is one of the most healthy spices you can find. I add it after prepairing the porridge in order not too lose any nutrients by heating it. Be careful not too add too much or your porridge will taste bad though.

Sunshine in a bowl, enjoy.

X Fleur

Ingredients:

Porridge:

• 30 gr oats or oatflakes
• 150 ml coconut milk / rice-coconutmilk
• 1 tblsp unsweetened dried shredded coconut
• 1/4 tsp ground curcuma (tumeric)
• 1 date
• squeeze of lemon juice
• a bit of lemon zest of an organic lemon (optional)

Toppings:

• handfull of raspberries /strawberries /blueberries /blackberries or cherries
• 20 gr cashews
• few mint leaves, shredded
• hanfull of coconut flakes
• few spoons of either low fat Greek yoghurt / quark / coconut yoghurt  or coconut cream
  
  

Method:

Toast the cashews and coconut flakes in a dry griddle pan (no oil) on low heat (or use the oven: about 10 minutes on 175 degrees C)

Blend the coconut milk and date using a blender or cut the date in very small pieces. 

Prepare the oats as you normally would on the stove or microwave. I like to boil the milk and oats together in a pan on the stove until the porrdige is creamy.

Take of the heat or out of the microwave and stir through the ground curuma, shredded coconut, lemon juice and optional lemon zest

Top with toasted cashews, coconut flakes, berries, mint yoghurt and some additional shredded coconut

Date Caramel & Nutbutter Drizzled Baked Bananas

The baked breakfast banana is back! I eat this with some yoghurt for breakfast or on its own as a snack. It is quick, very sweettooth soothing and in my humble opinion, quite wholesome. Give it a go. 

For the date caramel drizzle you have to make a jar of my date dulce de leche first (don't worry it is a super quick recipe, only 2 neccesary ingredients are needed) or make an extra quick version by blending 1 Medjool date with enough water or plantbased milk, with optional addition of some salt and vanilla, to form a beautiful carmael sauce.

I do reccomend adding the toasted coconut flakes or some nuts to add some crunch to the bananas as the baking makes them very soft.

You could easily grill the bananas in a pan on low to medium heat to get the same results if you don't have an oven or if you don't have time to preheat the oven. Just to be safe to keep the bananas from breaking the oven works better for me.

If your nutbutter or date caramel is too creamy for drizzling, just add some water to make it more liquidy.

Smearing the bananas with a little bit of sugar before putting them in the oven prevents them from turning grey-ish and slightly disgusting looking. The maple syrup makes them beautiful golden coloured.

Enjoy!

X Fleur

Ingredients:

• 1 banana 
• 1 tsp melted coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp maple syrup / rice syrup / honey / date syrup / coconut palm sugar
• 1 tblsp natural almondbutter / peanutbutter / cashewbutter (no added fat/sugars)
• 1 tblsp date caramel*
• few mint leaves, shredded
• small handful of (toasted) coconut flakes (or some nuts, to add crunch)

*see my date dulce de leche recipe

Method:

Turn the oven on to 180-200 degrees C

Cut the banana in the length and take off the peel

Drizzle the banana halves with melted coconut oil and maple syrup (or other sweetener)

Put the bananas in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until soft and slightly golden brown coloured

Drizzle with nutbutter and date caramel

Sprinkle over shredded mint leaves and coconut flakes

Quick Date Dulce de Leche (Milk Caramel)

Dulce de leche, milk caramel. It's the first word that comes to mind when I think of Argentina. The Argentinians live for it. They put it in pastries, ice cream, cookies and yes they even spread it on bread for breakfast or afternoon tea (while I was there I put dulce de leche in my oatmeal). It's so good and so bad at the same time! Time for a healthy update. 

While traditional dulce de leche, made with just sugar and milk and sometimes a hint of vanilla, takes hours to boil in order for the caramel to form, this version is done in minutes. Of course, flavourwise it is not the same but believe me when I tell you that it is super good, very satisfying and reminds me of the good times dulce de leche and I shared in Argentina.

This is a super thing to have hanging around in your fridge so that you can use it whenever you are craving something sweet to put in your breakfast or bakings.

You might want to play with the amount of milk you add, for me 105 ml's was the perfect amount for the consistency that I like. I like thick dulce de leche. Easy spreadable but not too liquidy. I advise to start with about 100-105 ml's and add more until you reach the perfect thickness.

I made my dade dulce de leche with (unsweetened!) almond milk, but you can try it with any milk you want. Keep in mind that the type of milk you use affects the flavour of your caramel. I figure that by using coconut milk it will become more sweet etc. I will ley you know my findings with the next jar I make. Because ay dios mio, I will make this more often. That is for sure.

X Fleur

Ingredients:

• 6 Medjool dates
• 105 ml almond milk (or use coconut milk / water / unsweetened soy milk / rice-coconut milk)
• big pinch of salt (important!)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or seeds of 1 vanilla bean (do not use vanilla essence)
• small squeeze of lemon juice (to taste)
• pinch of ground cinnamon (optional, not traditional but good)

Method:

Soak the dates in the milk. The longer you soak them, the softer they get and therefore it becomes more easy to blend them. I soaked them for a few hours.

Blend the dates, milk, salt, vanilla and lemon juice and optional cinnamon until smooth. Add more milk or water if neccesary to get the desired consistancy. 

Store in an airtight jar or container in the fridge, up to a few weeks.

Homemade Orange & Ginger Yoghurt

Ever since my trip to Argentina I am in love with jam. In Argentina, they have toasted bread and jam or marmelade ('tostadas con mermelada') for breakfast, and again around teatime. And well, after 2 months of living surrounded by Argentinians, it just got to me. 

French brand St. Dalfour has a series of amazing 100% natural jams which I highly reccomend. This weekend while doing grocery shopping I bought a jar of St. Dalfour's orange & ginger jam, which inspired me to make this breakky! If you cannot find yourself a decent orange jam without added sugar, just make it yourself! It's easy.

This is a beautiful breakfast recipe to ease the transition from summer to fall.

Enjoy!

x Fleur























Ingredients:

• 200 gr low fat Greek yoghurt / low fat quark
• zest of 1/2 (organic!) orange + the fruit, cut in little parts
• 1/2 cm fresh ginger (or use a few pinches of powdered ginger)
• pinch of cinnamon
• 20 gr peccans 
• spoon of orange ( & ginger) jam (go for one without added sugars or homemade, I'm using St. Dalfour orange & ginger jam)
• few mint leaves, shredded

Method:

Add orange zest and grated ginger to the yoghurt (both to taste) and give a good stir

Peel the orange, using a sharp, serrated knife and cut into parts. Squeeze the leftover peel over the yoghurt bowl to use up all of the orange juice that is left

Dress the yoghurt with orange parts, peccans, shredded mint, orange jam and cinnamon

How to: Sweet Potato Toast

Servings: 1-8

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato
• coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil
• seasalt / coconut palm sugar / honey / maple syrup

Savoury topping suggestions:

• egg
• guacemole
• hummus
• goatcheese & fig
• chicken & hummus
• avoaco 

Sweet topping suggestions:

• nutbutter & banana
• low fat Greek yoghurt & berries
• yoghurt, nuts & cinnamon
• homemade jam
• homemade healthy Nutella

Method:

Wack the oven on to a 190 degrees C.

No need to peel the potato. Just carefully slice it up in slides.

Divide the sweet potato toast parts on a greaseproof paper lined baking tray. Sprinkle with either coconut oil (sweet and savory ones) or olive oil (savoury ones) and either salt or one of the sweeteners.

Put the baking tray in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until the sweet potato is golden brown on both sides (flip them halfway through).

When they come out of the oven, top them with whatever you like.

Banana Breakfast Soufflé & Coconut Gratin

This recipe is so easy and so good! I like to eat it with some lof fat Greek yoghurt on the side and I'd like to reccomend that you poor a heaped tablespoon of peanutbutter over your soufflé.

Serves: 1

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1 tblsp coconut milk
• 1 egg, split
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla extract (no vanilla essence)
• big squeeze of lemon or lime juice
• 3 heaped tblsp dried grated coconut
• 2 tsp coconut oil

Method:

Wack the oven on to a 200 degrees C.

Use a machine to whip up the egg white until firm peaks. 

In a blender, mix together the banana, coconut milk, egg yolk, cinnamon and lemon juice.

Use a spatula to gently fold the egg white through the banana mixture. Don't overwhisk or you'll loose al the air of the egg white.

Grease a ovenproof tray with a little bit of coconut oil, pour in the banana mixture.

In a little bowl, use your fingers to combine the shredded coconut with the 2 tbsp of coconut oil. Top the banana mixture with the shredded coconut mixtrure,

Pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes until the soufflé is slightly baked and the coconut on top is beaituful golden.

Eat with low fat yoghurt / quark / coconut yoghurt, fresh fruit, nuts / nutbutter on the side.

Mango & Sweet Sticky Coconut Brown rice

Usually travelling gives me inspiration to try out new food and recipes but for this dish I was inspired because of a friend who travelled through southeast Asia for a few months. So I have a few healthyfied Asian recipes on my sleeve coming soon!

Thai coconut rice, which is like the Asian form of rice pudding, is one of the most famous Thai dishes. Eaten as either dessert or snack, it is traditionally served with mango (a must), a thick and sweet coconut sauce and sesame seeds. Nee I say more why I had to have this? Drag me away.

I made sure, using just enough sugar in form of maple surup (just 2 tsp per serving) to let it pass as a healthy breakfast. While the flavour of the coconut rice is still amazing, I'm using waaaay less sugar than traditional recipes and also, maple syrup is a 'healthier' form of sugar than refined sugar.

Also, by using brown rice instead of regular white rice as is normal, you are getting in more fibre and other nutricional benefits.

This recipe is for 2 people, if you're preparing it for just yourself you can just pop half the cooked coconut rice in a bowl in the fridge to have it another day. It will stay good and flavours are even better when the rice is chilled.

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Coconut rice:

• 75 gr (uncooked) brown rice 
• 1 tblsp maple syrup (or use rice syrup or honey)
• 270 ml coconut milk 
• good pinch of seasalt

Toppings: 

• heaped tblsp sesame seeds
• 40 cashews
• 1 ripe mango

Coconut sauce:

• 4 tblsp coconut milk
• 2 tsp brown rice flour (or use cornstarch, potato starch)
• 1 tsp maple syrup (or use rice syrup, honey)

• Method:
• The night before: wash the brown rice until the water runs clean. Put in a bowl and cover with water. Let the brown rice soak in the water overnight (or for about 4 hours).
• The next day, get rid off the water and rinse the rice once more. Pop it in a pan with the coconut milk and salt. 
• Bring to a boil with the lid on top of the pan (important!) and immediatly turn to low heat.
  
• Let the rice simmer for about 25 minutes. The rice needs to absorb all of the coconut milk. Add some water if neccesary. 
• Stir regularly to make sure the rice does not stick and burn to the bottom of the pan. 
• In the mean time: put a  frying pan on low/medium heat and roast the cashews and sesame seeds until golden.
• Slice the mango in pieces.
• For the coconut sauce: warm the coconut milk (for the sauce) on low heat, stir in the rice flour and let it stand on the stove until it has thickened a bit. Take of the heat and stir thourgh the maple syrup. 
• Your rice is finished when the liquid is absorbed, the rice is sticky and soft (taste it to make sure). When this is the case, take of the heat and stir through the tblp of maple syrup.
• Serve the rice chilled (best) or warm, dress with the coconut sauce, sesame seeds, cashews and mango.

• http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/06/fluffy-coconut-rice-with-tofu-pillows.html