Laksa Ayam

Years ago while backpacking half way around the world, I spent some time in Malaysia, and this one town on the east coast had a fantastic night market, where one could fill up on fantastic foods for a couple of bucks. Some of my favorites where the flaky roti canaii, the massive grilled king prawns (more like emperor prawns, if you advance on that size scale, as they were literally fist sized) with sambal and the endless variations of flavorful soups that would be available at all times of day (or night)

For a long time after coming back I would make a chicken and shrimp based soup called Laksa, then I forgot about it, but last week-end in NYC we ate a delicious little gem called Niu noodle house and our dinner reminded me of Laksa, and back came the memories of the fantastic taste, flavorful yet mild.

You can make this totally from scratch by buying a whole chicken, cutting it into pieces and boiling it to make stock, then remove the meat from the bones, shred and reserve and discard the bones. Or you can use chicken broth (homemade and stashed in your freezer) and a chicken breast or rotisserie chicken, all depending on the time you have or your willingness to work. In the spirit of full disclosure, my not completely authentic version features some adaptations, to make the recipe fit our western pantry a bit better. For one, I use macadamia or cashew nuts, the original calls for candle nuts, which are rather difficult to come by in this part of the world. I also like to add a pinch of turmeric to give the whole thing a bit of color.

…and of course you can put lots more broth over the noodles

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces or left over rotisserie chicken meat
3 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
(1/2 pound shrimp, or 5-6 per person, peeled and cooked, optional)
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
7 oz or 200 grams dried rice noodles, size medium or smaller, or vermicelli
4 small shallots + 1 shallot for garnish*
3 garlic cloves
4 macadamia or cashew nuts
1 stem lemon grass, only thick end, bruised so it’s slightly crushed and split open
1/2 tsp coriander seed
1 pinch turmeric
3 tbsp oil
salt to taste

* as a shortcut, get ‘fried red onion’ in a jar from your Asian grocer

Directions

Using mortar and pestle, grind the coriander seeds to a powder, then add the nuts and process the same way. Press the garlic and the small shallots through a garlic press, then add to the mortar and pound everything to a paste.
Thinly slice the remaining shallot and set aside.
Bring water to a boil, then pour over the rice noodles in a heat proof bowl and let stand until softened but not mushy, (time varies, depending on the size of your noodles)
Heat a small amount of oil in a soup pan, and fry the seasoning paste from the mortar until it just starts to turn golden and a strong fragrance is released. Add the chicken breast and cook for another minute. Chicken will cook more in the following steps. ( If using cooked chicken, add after adding the broth)
Deglaze with the chicken broth and the coconut milk, stir to dissolve any lumps of the seasoning paste. Add the lemon grass and bring to a boil and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
In the meantime, heat a small frying pan, add the remaining oil and fry the sliced shallots until crispy, set aside.
Add a pinch of turmeric to the broth and season with salt to taste.
To serve, place the noodles into 4 bowls, top with shrimp and 3 pieces of hard boiled egg each, then ladle the hot soup over top and serve garnished with the fried shallot

October 2, 2012December 16, 2017

Nelson’s Pepper and Mushroom Soup

After watching me make soup a couple of times, Nelson surprised me the other night by making a soup of his own, using what we have, just like I would, he whipped up the most delicious little soup one can imagine! And all from the things that needed to be used up: 2 sad looking zucchini squash, celery, 4 mushrooms leftover from making pizza on Friday, the rest of the pizza sauce, a can of pinto beans, some speck and a lovely misshapen red peppers that were on ‘quick sale’ at the store. Oh, but I wouldn’t do it justice by forgetting the not-all-that-hot looking little hot pepper we got from Dawn’s garden that spiced up the whole pot. It was super awesome! I might be odd, but I had to have some for breakfast today, yes, it was that yummy 🙂

Ingredients

2 tablespoons coconut or olive oil
1 onion chopped
4 big button mushrooms, cut into chunks
3-4 stalk of celery, chopped
1 can Pinto beans, rinsed (or frozen equivalent)
1 small green zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce (or about 1 cup leftover pizza sauce)
1 red bell pepper or ‘sweet ancient’ (long and funky looking)
1 hot red pepper (cherry or the one we had which looked innocent like a mini bell pepper)
1/4 cup diced Speck (pronounced “Shpek”, German slab bacon, cut into cubes)*
water (which should not be underestimated when making soup)
1 tsp salt
1 no salt added vegan broth cube from Rapunzel

*For vegetarian option, leave the Speck out, but make sure you blacken the red bell pepper, to give the soup some smoky depth.The odd little bag, you ask? Yes, that’s my frozen beans, I soak and cook beans for several meals and freeze them in snack size bags = just about a can of beans

Directions

Heat oil in a soup or stock pot, add the diced onions, celery and sweet red pepper, cook until softened and just starting to brown slightly.
Add the mushrooms and speck and cook just another minute before adding about 4 cups of water, the vegetable bouillon cube and the pizza or tomato sauce. If the beans are frozen, add them at this point.
Bring to a boil and cook until vegetables are tender and the soup gets cloudy looking and thickens a little, then add the finely diced hot pepper
In the meantime, cut the squash lengthwise into spears and chop into pieces, add to the soup and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Good with Rosemary Soca or corn chips!

September 25, 2012December 16, 2017

Better-for-you Gluten Free Brownies

brownie and sunshine 🙂

brownie, no sunshine. Oh yeah, the thing in the middle there? A overly cooked white chocolate chip…

I wanted to do something a bit special, celebratory for our 1 year anniversary and how better to celebrate than with something sweet and chocolatey? Yes, it is true, today my little blog turns one!

Therefore today’s recipe had to be a little special, so ‘common’ brownies were not going to cut it and since I don’t like things that are very sweet anyway, a standard recipe would not have been my thing. I have often felt that there are too many products and recipes out there that are, for example, gluten free, but now there are 18 eggs in them, or they are low fat but have twice as much sugar. So I challenged myself, why not combine some of the restrictions people face into one recipe without adding extra “bad stuff”? A lot of folks have issues digesting gluten + diabetics should be real careful eating sugar (and I don’t like lots of it, + it’s really not good for you) + most people watch the amount of fat they consume: I was setting out with quite a lofty goal. Can’t be done, you say? Well, I just think I might have nailed it! Best of all, if you just happen to be vegan, you can make this too 🙂

And since the weather looked a good deal like fall today I added another good for you ingredient: Pumpkin, to make it moist (also packs vitamin E, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Iron, Manganese and is a good source of fiber) and chick pea flour to keep it gluten free. I did have a whole big bag of chickpea flour, from who knows what recipe originally that I just rediscovered last week in making Socca.

By the way, get Besan from the Indian grocer, much cheaper than other healthfood store brands. As a matter of fact, anything you can buy at an ethnic store will be cheaper. If it is considered a specialty or an exotic item the grocery store will a) buy less of it, making it more expensive, and b) they can get away with charging premium dollar for ‘delicacies’ and ‘gourmet food’.For example, if you have a Asian grocer nearby, get your shallots there, also rice and rice noodles, dried or fresh will be a lot cheaper, so is Tofu, if you have that on your meal plan. Indian grocers usually carry various beans, peas and lentils, spices and almonds are usually less as well. And of course they have Besan, which is the chick pea flour we just talked about. But since it is not sold as a ‘gluten free’ flour… fraction of the cost!

But I digress, back to today’s topic: The gluten free, virtually fat free, low sugar, vegan anniversary BROWNIES! Yes, I am a tad exited about them, can you tell? 😉

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup chick pea flour/besan
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup mixed chocolate chips (dairy free, or it’s no longer vegan) or 1/2 nuts 1/2 chips
3/4 cups water
1/4 cup raw sugar (turbinado)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF
Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ baking dish (lasagna dish) with coconut oil
In a large bowl mash the bananas and mix in the pumpkin puree, then stir in the cocoa powder.
Add the brown rice syrup and the water and stir until well mixed
Combine the three flours, the xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda
Add the flours and 2 tablespoons of the raw sugar to the cocoa mixture and stir until well blended, then add the chocolate chips or nuts.
Spread into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining sugar
Bake in the middle of the pre heated oven for 45-50 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool completely before cutting, or you’ll have fudge brownies

September 24, 2012December 16, 2017

Rosemary Black Pepper Socca

Socca, a delicious street food from the south of France, more exactly Nice (in Switzerland, Nizza as the city is known in italian) is something I just recently discovered. I know, right? not while travelling in France, mind you, but living on the good old East Coast of the US. Which just goes to show that good food knows no boundaries.

“La socca de Nice, ou socca caouda, est un des plats les plus populaires de Nice semblable à une grande crêpe mais à base de farine de pois chiches et cuite au feu de bois.
A l’origine, c’était le plat du pauvre, bon marché et consistante.”

Basically saying: Nice’s ‘Socca’ is one of the most popular dishes from that region, resembling a big crêpe but made from chickpea flour and cooked over wood fire. Originating as poor folk’s dish, cheap and filling

Today, it is as much casual as it can be sophisticated, and a crowd pleaser at any dinner invite or potluck. Plus since it is naturally gluten free and vegan, can be served to most anyone. Best of all it is super easy to make but tastes incredible! Use a cast iron skillet for best results but I have also come across folks making it in a pie dish, during my internet research. Traditionally it is made on a large copper disk, over very high heat and in a very hot oven. As with most street food (I was going to say any, but the Malaysian Roti Canai might be the exception to the rule) it is easy to prepare and therefore I figured must be a good candidate for outdoor cooking.

I have even had success making this directly on the camp fire (since traditionally it is cuite au feu de bois, I had to) while camping but there are no pictures to prove it, so in this day and age, it never happened, lol. The one I did manage to get pictures of was made on my camp stove. And maybe here would be a good spot to apologize for the quality of some of the pics in this post, it was quite dark when I took them. Though I have to say, my headlamp functioned quite well as a backup flash for my cell phone, no?

You can make this easily in the oven at home, but since I had a little weekend away at a campfire planned, I decided to hone my socca making skills on a real fire. Maybe not entirely traditional, since much thicker than usual, but entirely too yummy not to share 🙂 I might post a more traditional version at some later time, we’ll see, but for camp fire cooking, this is taking it out of the hot dogs and smores category that often comes to mind when hearing ‘camping’. To make things extra easy, combine the flour, salt and pepper in a zip top bag before leaving and all you have to do is add the oil, water and rosemary at cooking time!

Here shown with beef and red pepper kebabs, a match made in heaven!

Ingredients

1 cup chick pea flour*
1 cup water
1/2 onion diced
1 1/2 tsp salt
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary

*chickpea flour can be found at many health food stores or the gluten free section of your grocery store. But the cheapest way is to find an Indian grocer and get it there, it’s called ‘Besan’

Directions

Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a 8″ cast iron skillet*, cook the onions until soft, turn down the heat and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes until starting to brown and caramelize. Set aside return the skillet to the heat, and keep heating on medium high.
Mix chick pea flour, water and 1 tsp salt, stirring with a whisk or fork until all lumps are gone. Set aside (you can make this and use it right away or set it aside for several hours, it’s all good)
Over high heat, in the same skillet, heat the remaining oil, then pour in the batter. After cooking for one minute, sprinkle the top evenly with the cooked onions and rosemary, and remaining 1/2 tsp salt, then cover with a lid until cooked through and the top is set about 5-7 minutes. Serve hot as a side to roasted meat or eat on its own.

* If you have a 10″ or larger skillet, the result will be thinner and take less time cooking.

The setting during the day…

September 18, 2012December 16, 2017

Coconut Super-Power Bars

Here shown with chocolate drizzles…

I was reorganizing my kitchen cabinets the other day, (can you associate with this?) and found that the recesses of the cabinet used as pantry hold much more than can be readily found by me on any given day. Some needed to be tossed 🙁 had been lost in the depths too long, there were things I didn’t know I had anymore but had been looking for and then of course there are the ~~quadruplicates~~ , I mean, duplicates.

Several (open) bags of extra dark chocolate chips, about 4 different ‘grinds’ of unsweetened coconut, all opened too, of course, and several jars with 3 or 4 tablespoons of honey or brown rice syrup were retrieved from the depths of my cabinet. I did promise myself to not get so ahead of myself again, let’s see if it holds next time I face a sale at the store…

So after my botched attempt at making coconut butter (I think the very fine Indian store coconut I had, was a just a bit too dry) I came up with plan B, and a fine plan it turned out to be. My boyfriend who is training to run the NY City Marathon this year, swears it’s those bars that made him finish the last couple of 15 mile training runs with ease. He swears they gave him super-powers, hence the name, they previously were ‘just’ power bars 🙂 And I’ll let you in on a secret, he doesn’t even like coconut ;P but if you bake it until the bars get brown, careful it’s right before the ‘too much’ stage, the coconut gets a taste similar to dark chocolate, add a handful of morsels and the deal is fixed. Just to calm your conscience, yes, he does know there’s coconut in there.

Vegan, gluten free and grain free and if you don’t count the coconut as nut (they really are considered one of the largest seeds, or technically a drupe, says Wiki) it’s nut free as well 🙂 Oh and don’t forget the power of the sprouted lentils.

See the little sprout poking out? And I think I spot a lentil too…

And please don’t be discouraged by the seemingly long ingredient list, it is totally worth making and there really isn’t that much effort required.

Since the sprouting takes some time, you want to start this several days before you want to make the bars. In the summer it only takes 2 days in my kitchen, but in the colder months, it could be three or four. Or if your kitchen is highly air-conditioned

Ingredients

4 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cups red lentils, sprouted, divided (makes about 2-2 1/2 cups sprouted)
3/4 cups date pieces
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup tapioca flour*
1/2 cup water
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup dark chocolate chips (make sure they are vegan or the recipe is not…)
(optional: 1/2 cup sliced almonds: not nut free anymore, but super yummy)
1/4 cup chia seed
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1 1/2 cups water
(optional: a handful of chocolate chips to melt and drizzle over top)

*I am sure other gluten free flour would work as well

Directions

Sprout the lentils until the little shoot is about 1/2″ to 3/4″ long (more details on sprouting here), reserve 1 cup,
Preheat oven to 350ºF
Mix the chia seed and the flax seed meal in a medium bowl with 1 1/2 cups water, set aside for 10 minutes
Blend the coconut and dates until finely mixed, then add all but the reserved 1 cup of lentils, blend until you have a sticky mass (or mess)
Add the chia mix and the brown rice syrup, pulse until mixed in
In a large bowl, combine tapioca flour and 1/2 cup water, the reserved sprouted lentils, and scrape the mixture from the blender into it, stir until incorporated.
Add the oats, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips (and almonds if using) and evenly spread on a silicon mat lined baking sheet (Make sure you use a baking sheet with sides)
Bake in the 350ºF oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Or until nicely browned. Remove from oven, let cool for about 1 hour then cut into bars. Spread the bars onto two (2) baking sheets, preheat the oven to 250ºF and bake for an additional hour, I sheet on the lower rack, the other on top, switching position after half an hour. This step is more to firm up the bars and kinda make them drier and more portable.
Cool on wire rack and enjoy! I store mine in the freezer so I can just grab a couple at a time.

August 24, 2012December 16, 2017

Grilled bananas with chocolate

And for an easy camping desert, bananas with chocolate:

Cut in to the top of the banana, making sure not to cut through.
Use 1 row of fine quality semi dark or milk chocolate (Lindt is excellent) and push the single pieces into the top of the banana
Wrap in a rectangle of aluminium foil: Place banana in the center, flip the foil up on both sides and fold down twice, then fold in ends
Place on a hot grill until bananas are tender and yield gently to the touch, about 10 to 15 minutes (depends on the heat of the embers)
Carefully open packets, and eat with a spoon. Careful very hot!!

Waking up to sunlight…

…and some lovely scenery from the kayak cockpit!

Looking up through the rocks at where we will end up, after the uphill hike. And of course I had brought some Trail mix Granola Bars!

Sunset Rock, overlooking North South Lake. You can’t see it from here, (I know this from the map) out of sight, off to the left there, are the Kaaterskill Falls, the lake water drains over the rocks into a fantastic multi level waterfall

August 17, 2012December 16, 2017

Raw ‘Pasta’ Alla Checca

Serve up some summer!

‘Alla checca’ is one version of a classic Italian summer fresh uncooked tomato sauce. Dreamed up in Italy, when the summer sun ripens tomatoes by the minute and you just don’t want the extra heat nor want to spend much time indoors cooking sauce. When tomatoes are at their ripest and most flavorful, you want to give this recipe a try. Use either your own fresh picked tomatoes or something pretty from the farmers market, no watery, flavorless kind from the store will do here.

Summer Bounty!

To take this a step further, I omitted the pasta and went with another summertime favorite that abounds in gardens this time a year, summer squash. Using Julienne cut zucchini and yellow squash instead of noodles, this is THE best dish of the summer. Low in calories, refreshing and oh so yummy! And the colors were so vivid and bright, I just kept looking at it, until my whole kitchen smelled like the garlic I used and hadn’t cleaned up yet;) Not as bad as the one time my whole house smelled like onions for a week, because of my over zealous helper, but more on that some other time…

Use it as a vegan main meal or serve some meat or mozzarella cheese on top or alongside. A crusty slice of bread would go well here too.

Ingredients

2 medium summer squash (I used one zucchini and one yellow, for visual appeal and because that’s what I had)
2 to 2 1/2 cups of tomatoes, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp capers
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup black olives, preferably niçoise
1/4 cup basil leaves
fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to taste

Special tools: Julienne peeler

Directions

Julienne the squash like such, set aside in a medium bowl
Chop the tomatoes, add the garlic, capers and olives, cut into pieces if big, grind black pepper over top and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to mix the sauce ingredients. Let stand for about 5 to 10 minutes to let the tomatoes release some of their juices, then salt to taste (I find that with the olives and capers, I need hardly any salt)
Roll the basil leaves and slice into thin long ribbons, add about half to the dish, toss. reserve the rest for topping.
Divide the cut zucchini and squash on two deep paste plates (as a main meal, four if served as a side) Top generously with the ‘alla checca’ sauce and some more basil, serve and let everyone grind some more pepper on top, if they like.

June 14, 2012

Granola Power Bars

Hiking or kayaking was on my list for the past weekend, but the weather has been a little , shall we say, un-cooperative. Since last night it literally thunderstorms every hour. So I have been limited to moving out onto the deck with book, cookie and tea, then back in, then back out with juice and book, then back in… My poor kitty ‘Einstein’ is terrified of thunderstorms. He runs into the basement and hides. He’s been there pretty much all day 🙁 saw him once, I think I will take some water and food down to his little corner… Poor fellow.

But on the upside of things, being limited to close to the house, I had plenty of time coming up with something that would be yummy (criteria number one), give me some sustained energy (i.e. complex carbs) and would be portable enough to take along, you know on hikes and such. Like a power bar. And since I really, really liked the granola I made recently (and this one), I started there with my ingredient list… And as an added bonus I supplemented with sprouted lentils for protein. To try lentils was an idea I got from Leanne’s Beach Bum Trail Mix Doesn’t that just look awesome? Heck, if they can go into trail mix, imagine how they would be sprouted and put into bars!

Ready for outdoor adventures! If only it stopped pouring…

Even my boyfriend, who’s not all that concerned with healthy eating, loves these!

Sprouted Lentils, before drying

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup popped amaranth grain (buy or do it yourself)
3/4 cup sprouted (and dried*) red lentils
3/4 cup date pieces or chopped dates
1/2 cup sweet brown rice flour
1/4 cup flax seed
1/4 cup flax meal
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup rice syrup
1/4 cup honey or agave nectar

* to dry the lentils after sprouting, preheat oven to 350F and place sprouted lentils out on a baking sheet. Cook for about 25 minutes, until crunchy. Ok, so I got a bit picture happy. Did I mention, it was raining all day?

Directions

Mix oats through brown rice flour in a large bowl, set aside
Mix flax seed, flax meal, chia seed, water and apple sauce, let rest 20 minutes. Then add the sweeteners and the peanut butter and mix until well combined.
Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients in the bowl and stir until incorporated.
Spread on a lined baking sheet (a US quarter sheet or half of a bigger cookie sheet works well) until about 3/4″ thick
Bake at 350 for 60 to 65 minutes, checking and turning the sheet after 40. Then turn oven off and leave them in the oven overnight.
In the morning, cut into rectangles roughly 1″x 4″, makes about 24

I used one side of a US half sheet size. Spread it out, it won’t go anywhere. And makes for some odd shaped bars at the end, you know, the ones YOU have to eat right away, to make it neat 😉

June 11, 2012

Strawberry Jicama Juice with Mint

In the last couple of weeks, I have re-introduced juices into my days again. No no, not OJ from a box. We all realize by now how not so good that might be for you. If you don’t yet, just think about the fact that diabetics are given orange juice when their blood sugar gets dangerously low, to quickly bring it back up… On some days juicing is an easy way to up my vegetable intake, and at least get to some of the nutrition I really should eat but don’t always have time for.

I will not get up on my soap box about sugar today, waaaaay to hot for climbing, but on hot days like this, eating is sometimes not something I feel like doing, but using my juicer always seems to come in handy. My general rule of thumb would be to use fruit only to sweeten your (green, yellow or red) vegetable juices, unless… unless of course you are making a desert. Well, here is more of a desert version, you know, to balance out the green juices in your life 😉

Ingredients

1/2 lb strawberries
1/2 medium Jicama, brown skin peeled off
1/2 cucumber, peeled
1 Chinese pear, quartered and seeds removed
2 sprigs mint, plus some leaves for garnish

Directions

Per your juicer’s guidelines, juice all the ingredients: I started with the softest things, the strawberries. Don’t push down, or you won’t get much juice from them, gently feed them through. Either juice the mint sprigs, or usig a wooden drink mottler, bruise them in the glass before serving the drink. Then juice the Jicama, the cucumber and the pear.
Pour over ice, garnish with mint leaves and serve!
Save the strawberry pulp for another use, unless you have a super Juicer and there is almost nothing left, you can use the rest for baking, pancakes or pop sicles

I bet this would be awesome spiked with lemon vodka… Tropical Island gettaway, here I come! …

May 28, 2012

Gluten-free Vegan Oatmeal Cacao Nib Cookies

Oh yeah, AND raisins!

These are so ridiculously awesome. The cacao nibs give them a dark chocolate flavor you can smell from the oven all while being gluten-free and low sugar! A quick word on cacao nibs/cacao bean: coming from the Theobroma cacao tree, sometimes wrongly labeled cocoa nibs/cocoa bean, which from my understanding refers only to the extracted butter or powdered stuff. The mayan word is: kakaw, they might be on to something, I mean, they’ve only been using the stuff for ever. Just sayin’

Gosh, you have no idea, but just writing about those cookies makes my mouth water, and of course they are already gone… (I see some more baking coming up in this girl’s future) They are chewy and fragrant and yes, the texture is somewhat different than regular oatmeal cookies, after all there are mostly oats in there (and they are made without gluten flour).

Dark cacao nibs (essentially pieces of cacao bean)

If you are cultivating your sweet tooth, please feel free to use more ‘sweet stuff’. The cookies here are getting some of their sweetness from the raisins, but they would be a perfect treat for my Dad, who doesn’t really like sweets. I am a big believer in flavor over just plain sweet, or salty for that matter; and these cookies fit the bill perfectly.

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup millet flour*
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup cacao nibs
1/4 cup flax meal
2 tbsp chia seeds
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond or other nut butter
1/4 cup agave nectar, maple syrup or honey**

* I used millet because of its sweet, nutty flavor, but you could most likely use other gluten-free flours

**if using honey, the cookies are no longer vegan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF
In a large bowl, combine first four ingredients (oats through cacao nibs)
In a separate bowl, mix flax meal and chia seeds with the water, set aside and let rest for 10 minutes.Then stir in the agave nectar and almond butter
Stir the flax mix into the bowl with the oats, add up to another 1/4 cup of water if dough looks too dry.
Drop cookies by the rounded tablespoon onto a prepared baking sheet, and bake until golden brown on the bottom and just starting to turn golden on top, about 8 to 11 minutes.

Makes about 30