Breakfast Banana Loaf

Posted on May 2, 2012 by theLABkitchen

Lots of sweet recipes this week because the freezer door was ajar one morning and some ripe bananas and apple puree that were in the freezer defrosted themselves and then begged me to be baked into tasty treats.

The obvious thing to do was make a banana loaf, but I wanted to make one that was healthy enough to eat for breakfast. So here is a breakfast banana loaf recipe to serve toasted with ricotta, honey and pear. It’s subtly sweet from the apple and banana but no extra sugar and moist without added oil.

What a tasty way to start a Wednesday


Continue reading →

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Healthy and Tasty, Snacks, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Healthy Chocolate Mousse

Posted on May 1, 2012 by theLABkitchen

This is seriously healthy chocolate mousse with no nasty artificial sweetners just lots of natural, healthy ingredients. You could honestly eat it for breakfast, and indeed I have.

Chocolate mousse for breakfast anyone?


1 serve has only 152 calories, and the serve isn’t modest, but the taste, well… K got his fingers into the bowl to get every last drop.

There are a thousand recipes for healthier chocolate mousse out there, but I think this one might take the cake (figuratively speaking only of course!). The reason this mousse ended up so healthy was somewhat accidental. Many of the recipes I was looking at called for coconut oil which was used to thicken the mix, but K doesn’t like coconut so he suggested agar agar, genius! So he has learnt at least one thing from me in nearly six years.

The result is swapping coconut oil of a few hundred calories to practically none! Overall the whole bowl is 625 calories, but this serves four. This mousse has a third less calories than K’s favourite blueberry yoghurt, so he’s off now for a second helping.

Continue reading →

Posted in Dessert, Healthy and Tasty, Snacks, Vegan Option, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Cauliflower Blue Cheese Bake: Beautiful produce served simply

Posted on April 29, 2012 by theLABkitchen

One of the best ways to cook is to take produce that is in season and prepare it simply. These days we expect to eat apples year round and then are surprised that kids don’t like fruit when you give them an apple in Spring, well you wouldn’t taste good after nine months in cold storage either!

Simple seasonal produce


Every Saturday morning for three years we have headed to our local markets to pick up our fresh produce for the week. Honestly, I can attribute a good portion of our weight loss to those markets. It’s much easier to avoid chocolate when you have a sweet, crisp apple (in late Summer) at hand, or a blushing persimmon in Autumn, or heavenly mangoes in Summer.

One wet LAB

Today we braved the rain and filled one and a half trolleys with fresh produce (yes, that is seriously the amount of fruit and vegetables we eat each week) plus I picked up some free-range bacon for an upcoming recipe, Lentils with Bacon and Sage. I came across a big crate of fresh, cheap cauliflowers and immediately had a craving for warm, creamy cauliflower bake. Fresh produce simply prepared, yum!
Continue reading →

Posted in Healthy and Tasty, Main Dishes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Nasi Lemak

Posted on April 28, 2012 by theLABkitchen

You will never look at rice the same way after eating nasi lemak. Rice is no longer a bland accompaniment for rich food, it is devour-able in its own right.

The rice is subtly flavoured with coconut, ginger and pandan (the vanilla essence of Asia?). A big mound of nasi lemak is beautiful with the vibrant flavours of Malaysia like dried anchovies (ikan bilis), beef rendang, peanuts, boiled egg and pickled vegetables.

If you have any leftover the next morning, try it with a drizzle of honey with some hot milk like a rice porridge, it’s a delicious way to start the day.

Continue reading →

Posted in Main Dishes | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Beef Rendang: A Flavour Explosion

Posted on April 27, 2012 by theLABkitchen

I love Malaysian food. It is like every flavour in every mouthful has been condensed in a black hole and then it explodes back out in your mouth.

Malaysian food is a perfected experiment with extreme flavour and so it suits the LAB kitchen perfectly. I’m pretty sure that the next occupants of this house will think and a family from somewhere in south-east Asia lived here, not a skinny white girl. The smell of turmeric, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, mustard, cumin (and more cumin) will emanate from these walls for years to come. This is why I buy my spices by the pound from Indian and Asian stores.

For me, the pinnacle of mouthful-flavour-explosions is beef rendang, with nasi lemak and accompanying tasty morsels. This isn’t perfectly authentic, but like all families, they have their own versions of traditional recipes and this will be my family version.

The Food Safari book this is adapted from is wonderful, for those interested in flavour and experimenting with new dishes I would highly recommend it.
Continue reading →

Posted in Main Dishes, Meat | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Delilah

Posted on April 26, 2012 by theLABkitchen

I am a lucky woman, because I have my own cocktail bartender at home. This is one of our favourites and it doesn’t take much coaxing to get one made for me.

So simple, I wish all recipes with just three ingredients turned out so well. But just promise me you’ll use good quality gin and fresh lemon juice. When you’re using very few ingredients they must be of good quality.

This cocktail is shaken, not stirred because the lemon juice results in a cloudy drink before it’s cooled whereas shaking a clear cocktail turns it cloudy. But shaking cools your cocktail more quickly, so it gets less watered down in the process

Continue reading →

Posted in Drinks | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Pear, Fennel and Parmesan Salad

Posted on April 25, 2012 by theLABkitchen

The soft shades of green are deceptively demure in the pear, fennel and parmesan salad. Don’t let her mislead you for under those harlequin frills she is a jezebel.

I first made this salad to go with a leek and goats cheese tart and it was a wonderful combination as the pear, fennel and parmesan salad has so much character and texture.

This salad, like the Beetroot, Pea and Feta Salad, is all about getting your flavours to balance, but this salad kicks it up a notch. Because the flavours are bolder in this salad, their counterparts have to be equally bold. Whereas the beetroot which is subtle earthy sweet was balanced against creamy salty feta and coy little peas, the boldly sweet pear is paired with punchy cheeses like parmesan or pecorino and crunchy audacious fennel.

When making a salad, I find that it is not only a balance of flavours like salty and sweet, but about their intensity. Two or three forthright flavours can go really well together or equally two or three subdued flavours can be just as amazing in their delicate nuances.

Continue reading →

Posted in Healthy and Tasty, Salads, Vegan Option, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Currently Under Experiment in the LAB

Posted on April 24, 2012 by theLABkitchen


At any given point in time there are usually a number of recipes I have at various states of development in the LAB kitchen. Often I’ll see a type of produce at the markets that is just coming into season or I see a bag of something at the back of the cupboard that needs to be used and it sparks a thought. Otherwise I will just get an unreasonable yearning to incorporate beer into a recipe or another food blog will remind me of a recipe I used to make.

Really my head is the first test-tube in the LAB. From the first twinkle in my eye, a recipe will often spend many hours running around my head, usually while I’m in a lecture and I should be paying attention. During this time, thoughts of flavours come and go that would pair well until a dish starts to come together. Often I’ll start researching a bit about the ingredient: it’s source, how to cook it and what other people do with it.

Then we get to cooking. Often this goes well and it becomes dinner or breakfast and will get posted, but sometimes it needs more tweaking, especially with ingredients that are new to me. So I thought I’d let you in on experiments that are currently underway in the LAB that will grace your screens over the next few weeks.

At the moment the LAB has a few projects in various stages:
Homemade Vanilla Extract – this is not a LAB recipe, but I’ll post it because it fits the LAB philosophy
Chestnut Tarts
The Volume Ratio for Dough to Pan
Husband-Approved Healthy Chocolate Mousse
A beer version of one of the above

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Cabbage Rolls

Posted on April 23, 2012 by theLABkitchen

Here is yet another dish that must be 90% vegetables and is 100% taste. It’s vegetables, filled with vegetables, smothered in vegetables!

I made this one morning and my meat-loving, bachelor flatmate wandered into the lounge going “mmm, that smells good,” to which I laughed because he is not convinced that vegan food is tasty and yet he always thinks what I’m making is smells good.

I’m sure that these are quite Eastern-European, which means that they’re a good frugal food for those health-conscious on a budget.
Q: What’s the best frugal food you serve your family?

Continue reading →

Posted in Healthy and Tasty, Main Dishes, Vegan and Delicious, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sweet Potato Boats

Posted on April 22, 2012 by theLABkitchen

After yesterday’s ‘grown-up’ dessert, here is a childish dinner. A lot of my experimenting involves trying to make food as vegetable based as possible while making sure it still passes the husband taste test. This is one of our favourites which is almost entirely vegetables and brown rice so it’s super healthy and if you have pre-cooked rice in your freezer it can be ready in no-time!

I don’t usually put basil sails on my sweet potato boats, but I thought it was a nice touch and might be good for kids. In any case, have some fun with your food!
Q: What is your favourite way to have fun with food?

Continue reading →

Posted in Healthy and Tasty, Main Dishes, Vegan and Delicious, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments