BAKED KALE + MUSHROOM BURGERS W CUMIN SWEET POTATOES AND FENNEL, ORANGE, CUCUMBER SALAD

Short and sweet today: life is good. So here are some really good things:

Read this, then this, then this. Currently reading this. All highly recommended.

Lusting after this t-shirt, and this tank.

Running to this playlist. Teaching to this playlist.

New timetables at two of my studios: Stretch Yoga and Cultivate Calm Yoga.

We'll be spending the month of October here (!).

Looking fancy here, for this amazing silversmith.

And these burgers. With fancy (but not too fancy) sides. So good that as soon as we'd munched our way through one batch, I made another one pretty much straight away.

BAKED KALE + MUSHROOM BURGERS

makes 10

These burger's aren't going to win any awards for appearance, but they pack a flavourful punch. (And they're even better the next day.) They're a little more delicate than other burgers, which is why they're baked, not fried, but it means that the next day, they maintain their moist insides and chewy outsides.

4 stems curly kale, stems removed
150 g mushrooms
2 tbsp ground chia seeds + 1/2 cup warm water
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 sprig of rosemary, leaves chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp tamari
zest and juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of ground chilli

In a steamer (or place a colander over a saucepan with an inch of water in the bottom) steam the kale for 5-7 minutes, then the mushrooms for 7-9 minutes. Remove and roughly chop. Place the chopped steamed kale and mushrooms in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and pulse until combined. Line a baking tray with paper, and using your hands, shape the mixture into 10 burgers. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 190C. Once the burgers are chilled, bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully turn over. Use a thin metal spatula and your hands as these gorgeous babies will be delicate. Return to the oven and bake for another 30 minutes, at this stage also adding the sweet potatoes to the oven.

Remove from the oven and serve with sweet potatoes, salad, lime wedges and sauces of choice (HOT, choose HOT). Enjoy.

CUMIN SWEET POTATOES

serves 4

3 sweet potatoes
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
drizzle of rice bran oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Toss the seasoning with the sweet potatoes and bake for the final 30 minutes with the burgers.

FENNEL, ORANGE + CUCUMBER SALAD

serves 4 as a side

1 orange, peeled, halved and sliced
1 small cucumber, halved and sliced thinly
1 small or 1/2 large fennel
1/4 small onion, very thinly sliced
handful of mint leaves
handful of toasted pistachios
sea salt and pepper to taste

While the sweet potatoes and burgers are in the oven, slice all the veggies. Toss them together with the mint, salt and pepper. Top with pistachios.

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The menu for my retreat (in ONE month) is now available for your perusal. And there are only 2 (!) tickets left: 1 couple ticket for the master room (own bathroom, holler!), and a single tickt. Check out the menu and details here.

TAHINI-TERIYARKI KALE CHIPS

Hola! After some months with a frustrating lack of motivation and inspiration, I'm here. So much has happened. Thesis is nearly finished (hooray!), I'm half-way through my yoga teacher training (hooray! hooray!). And, finally I've arrived at a clear vision of what I want to communicate and share here is this space (High fives!).

Now let's talk kale chips.

The first time I tasted this tahini-teriyaki sauce, I think my brain exploded. It's inspired by a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty, where he, brilliant-genius-maestro-that-he-is, has combined traditional Japanese teriyaki flavours (tamari, sugar, mirin) with tahini. And garlic. I remembered this sauce last week, when confronted with a bag of green beans that were on the verge of being slightly too dodgy to eat. I sautéed them over high heat, drizzled smothered them in this sauce, and ate them atop a pile of other vege. The next day, this sauce was still smothering my brain. I remembered the bunch of kale in the crisper. I don't think the decision to put the two together was pondered for even a millisecond.


TAHINI-TERIYAKI KALE CHIPS
serves 4 as a snack

5 stems/100 g curly kale
2 tbsp/50 g tahini
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 garlic clove, crushed

Preheat oven to 100C/210F. Tear the kale off the stem into bite-size pieces. Place the torn leaves in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Taste, and adjust flavours to taste. Pour over kale leaves, massaging the sauce thoroughly into the kale for at least 1 minute. Spread kale in a single layer across 1-2 baking trays lined with baking paper. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove from oven and carefully peel kale chips away from paper and flip over (you can also use an egg flip, but try not to tear the chips). Return to oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until dry and crispy. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Stored in a really airtight container, kale chips should last a few days, but may need re-crisping. Honestly, mine are lucky to last that long.

Alternative cooking method: often I make kale chips when I've already had the oven on for another reason. Once I'm done with the primary reason for having the oven on (usually around 180C-200C), I turn the oven off completely, and put the kale chips in the still hot oven for 2-3 hours. After this stage, I flip them, then give them 20-30 minutes at 100C just to finish them off. Both methods yield delicious results.