I don’t know about you, but to me there is nothing more
comforting than the smell of freshly brewing coffee and hot bread coming out of
the oven on a lazy Sunday morning….Ummm heavenly.
Well, I said a “lazy” Sunday, but it wasn’t such a
late starter for me since I was up at 08.00 am getting the breakfast
ready for the family. My mother is visiting from Spain and nothing will get her
out of bed quicker than the enticing sweet smell of filtered coffee travelling up
the stairs and through her bedroom door, filling her lungs with the
unmistakable and familiar aroma of the roasted coffee beans. She has been
coming to England for 20 years now but no amount of persuasion will get her to
convert to the famed English Tea. Coffee is a serious business for us Spaniards
and my mother even travels abroad with her favoured brand: “Santa Cristina”.
I have been making bread for a number of years
now. It was my mother in law who in fact got me into it. I love the whole
process of baking bread, the smell of the fresh ingredients, the experimenting
with flavours, the kneading (very therapeutic when stressed out), the
anticipation as the bread proves and the excitement of seeing it turn to that
beautiful golden colour and the smell… oh, the smell!
But making bread (unless you have one of these
fancy bread making machines) is a time consuming exercise... that is until I
found this incredible recipe for Spelt Bread: in just under 60 minutes you can
prepare and bake a large, beautiful, dense but light loaf of bread. And I am
going to share the recipe with you. Here it goes:
We use non-dairy yogurt.
You can get all sorts of plant based alternatives to yogurt (soya, almond,
coconut, etc) in all major supermarkets but if you fancy making your own vegan
yogurt, here is a link to an excellent tutorial.
I personally love this bread with just walnuts.
But a mixture of sunflower, pumpkin and crushed linseed (flaxseed) is
gorgeous too as well as full of essential fatty acids. Pumpkin seeds and dried
cranberries work together really nicely, and for a nice sweet twist, try some
raisins and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Let your imagination run free and
experiment with the flavours, as I do.
Just a tip regarding this particular bread recipe:
don’t be tempted to mix it with your hands (as you would normally), use a
wooden spoon or spatula instead because the mixture is quite wet and it will just
stick to your hands!
Whilst my bread is cooling nicely on the rack, I
start preparing a tomato spread to serve it with (Spanish style). Using a
cheese grater, I grate a couple of vine tomatoes in a bowl, add one crushed
garlic clove (or 2!), a generous sprinkle of dried oregano, a pinch of
Himalayan pink salt and a dash of cold pressed olive oil. I mix it all
together.
I cut two generous slices of bread, spread some of
the tomato mix and top it up with a bunch of cress, lentil or mung bean sprouts (grown
in our germinator) and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper & turmeric. It looks
good enough to eat, don’t you think? Mother approves, so it must be good.
I hope you will enjoy my recipe. I would love some feedback or requests; you can leave comments below. I will soon be sharing more examples of how we keep our Diet, Bodies and Home clean and healthy and best of all cruelty-free.
Bon appétit / Buen Provecho!
Pilar Bueno
#HealthyLing #Nutrition #Vegan #Vegetarian #Crueltyfree #GreenLiving #Eco-friendly #GreenUpYourLife #Sprouting #Garlic #Recipes #MedicineOnYourPlate #Sirtfood
