I’m currently living in between places that means I have no kitchen of my own and I have very limited access to kitchen utensils. On top of that, moving to London is not cheap, therefore, I have been working a lot and have not had a lot of time.
However, I’m still staying on top of my veggie game despite my circumstances. I have noticed that people often tend to give up, and do not see the resources -even if they are limited- that they can work with. For me, my scarce resources at the moment are time and kitchen space. So I’m saying goodbye to elaborate veggie bowls for a while and hello to quick, simple but tasty spicy veggies.
Here is my quick and easy recipe.
[yumprint-recipe id=’2′]
Add the spices you like and make this dish your own!
I recently read an article that was shared by a friend that was titled “Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea”. The article outlines how both these terms originate from China and how the spread of the words depicts how globalization worked before the term “globalization” was a term.
In Swahili, the term chai is used. I grew up drinking chai in Mombasa. I find myself drinking chai now as a way to soothe myself after a long day. Chai is something that I took very much for granted in my childhood, I now approach it with more mindfulness.
Anyway, there are two ways of drinking chai in Mombasa; either you can drink chai wa rangi (translating literally to chai of colour) which is a blend of fresh crushed ginger, chai spices, black tea leaves and nothing else. The second way is known as chai ya maziwa(chai with milk what is a so-called chai latte here in Europe). Chai is drunk in various ways in Mombasa as there are some recipes that lean more on the Indian influence and use more cinnamon, other recipes use more crushed ginger (chai ya tangawizi). Every household has their own way of preparing chai. I remember that as a child when we would visit my mother’s village in Embu a common breakfast would be margarine spread white toast bread stacks that would be cut diagonally into right triangles, that would be dunked into the chai. I loved this breakfast as I am a sucker for dunking all kinds of things in my tea! This type of breakfast is a staple for a lot of people across Kenya.
In Mombasa, people do also drink their chai with margarine spread toast bread. Yet there is also the traditional Swahili breakfast which is chai na mahamri ( mahamri is a cardamom-spiced doughnut that is not in the shape of a circle but in the shape of a triangle). Sometimes the mahamris are filled with mbaazi wa nasi (which is pigeon peas in coconut milk stew). So delicious!
People in Mombasa add sugar to their chai which in some cases has had not so good health effects on the people. I find that by adding maybe more fennel or more cinnamon, chai can be enjoyed without adding sugar. Therefore here is my Chai ya mdalasini (chai with cinnamon) mix. I made a video that shows the whole process:
One small disclaimer this is not your Nyanya’s way of making chai. This is my way which is very much inspired by how I am feeling, where I am, what I see, read and taste. If you want your Nyanya’s Chai mix then please just ask her.
As i write this post i am nibbling on one of these brownies. In my last post i suggested that as a meal prep you should prepare something sweet for the week. This recipe is perfect for that. It is simple, cheap, chocolaty gooey, glutenfree, refined sugar free and 100% nourishing.
I made a video that shows the whole process. For the exact measurements scroll down.
if you want to make a smaller tray just reduce all the recipes by half and use a 27×18 cm tray
food processor
Ingredients:
4 medium sweet potatos (oven baked or chopped up boiled or steamed)
1 cup date paste or 24 pitted large dates
4 Tablespoons of melted coconut oil
2 cups ground up sunflower seeds (or hazelnuts,almonds or brazil nuts but sunny seeds are cheap and delicious )
2 cups of ground up oats
12 Tablespoons of cacao powder (unsweetend)
6 Tablespoons of sugarbeet molasses ( or whatever natural sweetner you prefer, also feel free to reduce the amount or leave this out completely and add more dates and plant milk)
pinch of salt
dash of plant milk
dash of hot water
Method:
– in a food processor add the dates and a dash of hot water and process to a paste
– add in the sweet potatos and coconut oil and process everything
-in a mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients; oat flour, sunflower seed flour, salt and cacao powder
– pour the sweetpoato mix into the mixing bowl, add the sugarbeet molasses and stir everything together
– if the mix is too dry add in a dash of plant milk or water and stir. The mixture should be sticky and gooey but not dry and and not runny either
-place some baking paper on a baking tray and pour the mixture in and spread out evenly.
-place tray in the oven and bake for 30 mins
– VERY IMPORTANT! remove from the oven and let the brownie cool completely this is very important. The longer you wait the better the brownie I usually let it rest overnight.