Evening in the Kitchen: Superfood Bread

This evening was earmarked for a bit of cooking as I hadn't done much by way of preparation over the weekend. Which is to say nothing. The organised plan told me I should be making soup, bread, energy balls and granola bars....which felt ambitious leaving work at 6 with the shopping not yet done.

As Nature Intended is truly one of the best food shops ever: it has so many lovely tempting things and having looked at a few websites lots of their prices were also better for the storecupboard items I was wanting to stockpile. Who knew I would one day be regarding raw cacao powder, psyllium husks and nutritional yeast as the staples of my kitchen?!

Ella's Superfood Bread is a truly brilliant recipe that I guarantee I will be making time and time again. Eating gluten-free tends to mean saying goodbye to bread as the alternatives are generally so horrible but this is inspired. It has a texture much like a german-style rye bread but a light nutty/seedy flavour. Only a crust remained by the time I got round to taking this photo...

It's an incredibly easy recipe to throw together and The Housemate and I are still eating it nearly a week later so it keeps well wrapped in foil. It toasts like a rye bread too so that gives a slightly chewier consistency.

It was the basis of a thrown together lunch on Sunday with houmous, avocado and tomatoes and I took a few slices out to my networking lunch one day to go with my soup. Because of the herbs this isn't a great one for breakfast but next time I'm going to try a version leaving them out and trying cinnamon or another spice instead to make something more breakfast-y. Obviously you could just leave them out altogether for an all-the-time bread - the loaf has a lovely nutty flavour of it's own.

My edited version of the recipe as follows:

200g almonds
200g pumpkin seeds
200g sunflower seeds
200g brown rice flour
3 tsp dried mixed herbs of your choice
2 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp psyllium husks (apparently this is what holds is together so no substitutions - easy to buy in Holland & Barrett or any health food shop)

1. Blend almonds and 3/4 of the pumpkin and sunflower seeds in a food processor until they resemble flour.
2. Put in large mixing bowl with all other dry ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Add 600ml cold water and stir together until fully combined.
4. Stand for about an hour until the water is absorbed and the mixture is all stuck together.
5. Form into a a long shallow loaf (it will fall apart if you try to make it too tall) on a baking tray.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes at 200c until browned and a knife will pull cleanly out of the centre.

I'm making this again tonight as I've actually felt a bit bereft without any in the house the last few days!

As regards the soup.....considerably less enthused. Ella's Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper with Canellini Bean. It was okay but as a huge soup fan I think it's easily to make something far more delicious with probably less effort. So that's a post for another day with a few of my favourite soups.

Score for these: Bread 1 - Soup 0