This simple dish is made of plantain purée. It has all the nutrients of bananas, but tastes similar to a hot wheat cereal. I used almond milk to make it, and then topped it with almond milk, blueberries, and maple syrup.
The next day I prepared the leftover porridge by blending it with more almond milk, and mixing in leftover pumpkin topping from the baked apples with pumpkin caramel filling.
I used commercial kombucha for this as I did not make it in my own home. For the ice cubes I didn’t have rosemary or cranberries, so I decided to use Douglas fir needles and blueberries. The blueberries were grown locally over the summer and frozen, while the fir needles were harvested from a nearby grove. Douglas fir has edible needles which are often used to make tea; if you try something similar be sure of your tree identification and knowledge of needle toxicity as not all tree needles are safe to consume. Here’s the original recipe.
These looked great but the taste was ordinary.
During a trip I tasted a lovely breakfast bowl with a base of açaí purée, topped with granola and fresh fruit. And I thought: I can make that. One key component was that the purée was very cold, almost frozen, and that was a big part of why it was delicious on a hot summer morning.
I had fresh banana and frozen raspberries, so I blended them with a bit of water. I added some granola (a simple version, made with oats, sunflower seeds, almond flakes and agave), then I topped it off with a fresh nectarine.
The second time I made it, I used frozen banana and peach juice, and topped it with blueberries. It was less visually striking but the taste was even better.
The third time I used frozen bananas, water, and fresh blueberries and topped it with melons.
The best results were with frozen banana and fruit juice. Adding water dilutes the fruit purée too much.
In making this Finnish blueberry soup, I used only 1/4 cup of sugar, and used stevia to add to the sweetness. I did not include lemon zest. I served it with oat cream.
Instead of throwing away the fibre, I ate it warm with a dash of stevia as a snack.
I enjoyed the Estonian rhubarb soup so much that I decided to make a Finnish berry soup, which I haven’t had in a few years. I used a mixture of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. No recipe is really required, but here is one. I sweetened mine with a mix of stevia and apple-based fruit sweetener.
I topped it with oat cream.
I made these mini cobblers by taking one granny smith apple and a few fresh blueberries and mixing them with fruit syrup sweetener, cinnamon, a pinch of flour, and a bit of lemon juice. I divided the mixture between 6 oiled cupcake tins and preheated the oven to 220 Celsius.
For the topping I used a little oil, cinnamon, fruit syrup sweetener, buckwheat flour, wheat flour, hazelnut milk, baking soda and ground flax seed. I baked them for 20 minutes.
I had guests for dinner but no dessert so we quickly made a Victoria sponge. I reduced jam with brandy to make a topping, and added fresh berries.
Usually when I make smoothies I make them as a dessert, using fruits and not vegetables, but smoothie breakfast bowls looked like too much fun to pass up. I made the smoothie from cooked and chilled broccoli, a handful of blueberries, a banana, hazelnut milk, and stevia. To decorate I used sunflower seeds, dried goji berries, pumpkin seeds, pinenuts, coconut flakes, sliced almonds, black and white sesame seeds, flax seed powder, and flax seed powder mixed with goji berry.
After enjoying most of the plum compote on soda bread, I put the remainder in my water porridge with some blueberries. I topped it with some of the muesli I made.
This is a typical breakfast for me.
It consists of Greek yoghurt sweetened with agave and stevia, fruit compote, fresh fruit, cocoa nibs, and ground flax seed. Since this picture was taken in the spring, my seasonal fruits were strawberries and blueberries, and the compote is rhubarb and banana, with a few dates as extra sweetener. When I’m lazy I get sweetened yoghurt with a fruit layer and just add the flax and cocoa nibs.
TMI Food 