Update - Apple Fudge Brownies

Tom here,

Okay so after a hard(ish) mornings revision and a run in the rain I decided I had all the motivation I needed to get creative in the kitchen and...well I won't say it was exactly the success I was hoping for, but it kinda worked. I may have another try and tweak this later. I tried to keep this as low calorie as possible which may not have worked all that well, I may tweak this again later with another attempt. My logic with this recipe was to try to create a sort of fudge syrup (which has worked before) to give the cake a toffee-fudgy flavour in the background. This turned into more of a porridge, but was still ridiculously tasty so that worked out. My brownies were lacking in some vanilla as I ran out, which really made a difference. Definitely make sure to get some nice vanilla flavour in this (whether paste or extract) as it really makes a difference. Overall, not a complete success but a tasty brownie nonetheless which I will perfect at a later date (when exams aren't looming over my shoulder!)

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked Black Beans
1/2 cup Cocoa
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Oats (if gluten free use certified oats)
1/2 cup Dates
1/4 cup Raisins
1/2 cup Hazelnuts
4 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
Pinch of Salt
1 ripe Banana
1 Apple
1/4 cup Soy Milk

This recipe requires a food processor, it might work with a hand blender (as the other ones did) but having a food processor makes life worth living so if you have one, crack it out! Also I made the mistake of adding cloves to mine to try and compensate for the vanilla. This does not work. Mine just taste like clove now. Very disappointing.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius
First to make the fudge syrup, put the dates and raisins in a cup and cover with boiling water and leave until cool (around 15 minutes)
Next, put the oats in the food processor and blend until pretty small (like 30 seconds). No need to wash out the bowl as we're going to use it again in a minute but tip the oats into another cup and cover with about a centimetre of cold water and leave until the dates and raisins are cooled.
Once this has happened, blend the dates and raisins into a syrup using a hand blender.
Place this along with the soaked oats and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar is fully dissolved
Cut up the apple and banana and pulse in the food processor until roughly chopped.
Add the beans, cinnamon, vanilla, soy milk, salt and fudge syrup and blend until smooth(ish)
Bash the hazelnuts in a pestle and mortar until broken down
Add these to the food processor and pulse until mixed (don't blend unless you don't like chunks of nut)
Pour into 2 greased baking tins and bake in the oven for half an hour(ish) until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the centre
Cut each tin into eight and enjoy!

Nutritional Information: (calculated using myfitnesspal.com)



                       Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
           Total:      2578      444       68         72           2398       269
 Per Serving:         161        28        4           5            150         17

Fat-Free Lentil and Mushroom Burgers

Tom today!

Basically, I have a whole buttload of work I should be doing, so naturally all I can think about is new recipes to make (For some reason learning about sex steroids has given me an absolute hankering for some coconut macaroons. Don't ask me to explain. However that one will have to wait a few days). This is something of an invention, based loosely on a few recipes I have looked at and made before, but also very much making this up as I go along. We'll see how this goes.

Having read several of the Happy Herbivore's (http://happyherbivore.com/) recipes, I have a budding interest in fat-free cooking (from both a scientific curiosity and a health point of view) so this is my attempt at fat-free recipe! (I say fat free, meaning that there are no added fats in this, however there are still some fats in the ingredients used - but this is minimal) I've also used arrowroot to bind the mixture, which makes this recipe both vegan and gluten-free (as long as you use certified oats). Also I am a terrible cook who never measures anything, so these are all approximations which I think I've used, so if you're out by a bit here and there, I can't see it mattering. As I haven't made these before and am making this up as I go along I'll have to add the nutritional info afterwards.

Makes 9 small burgers, probably about 3 meals worth

Ingredients:

2 cups of Green Lentils
Pinch of Salt, Pepper, Rosemary, Cayenne Pepper and Smoked Paprika
1/2 cup of Red Lentils
1 Carrot (Grated)
1/2 an Onion
1 cup finely chopped Mushrooms
3 large cloves Garlic
5 tbsp Rolled Oats
1 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Rosemary (I used dried)
1/2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Mixed Herbs
1/2 tsp Bouillon (vegetable stock powder - if you're using stock cubes 4 tsp of Bouillon makes 1 litre of stock, so that would be a quarter of a stock cube usually - I didn't want to overpower the flavour)
Large pinch of Salt (the stock I use is pretty salty already)
Pepper to taste (I like LOTS)
1 tbsp Arrowroot (can also use cornflour or an egg)

Method:

First cook the green lentils in water, adding the salt, pepper, rosemary, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika to the water and then boiling for 10 minutes before simmering until soft (should be around half an hour). This will give the lentils a nice flavour (I always think green lentils have a slightly smokey flavour on their own which goes really nicely with these flavours and gives a meaty taste to the burgers).
Next boil the red lentils until they are soft, then drain and puree using a hand blender. These will give the burgers more substance and something to hold them together without needing flour (at least I hope so).
Now preheat your oven to 220 degrees celsius.
In a mixing bowl (as you can see in the pictures I am a poor student without such luxuries, so I am using a saucepan) combine all the ingredients and mix.
Add dashes of hot water until the mixture holds together (be careful not to go overboard! Really use little bits at a time and mix it thoroughly - I probably used about 6 tbsp). If you do go overboard, fear not! Flour or oats can easily be used to bring the mixtures back to the right consistency.
Make the mixture into small balls - I made mine into 9 which will be small burgers but you can do what you'd prefer - and place on a lightly greased baking tray.
Bake for 20-30 minutes (or until they start to look cooked and are brown on the bottom) then flip them and squash into burger shapes, bake for another 20-30 minutes until they seem cooked all the way through.
Serve - I like mine with vegan coleslaw and salad in a pitta!

This recipe can be used with different spices for a different flavour, or the carrot can be substituted for another vegetable (I'm thinking parsnips could be good?) or you can use different lentils, or a different pulse altogether! Let us know any ideas you come up with at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

NB// Here is the nutritional info for these burgers (calculated using myfitnesspal.com):

                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
          Total:     686          117       5          41           299           9
Per Serving:        76           13        1           5             33           1

One serving is one burger if made into nine burgers