Kitchen confidence

Kitchen Confidence

You don't need to be bound by recipes, the more you practice the more confidence you will have.

Once you understand the basics of a recipe you can adapt it to any recipe. For example, with soup, once you understand the basics of layering ingredients you can apply this knowledge to any recipe.

Try and learn five recipes by heart and then you can learn to make them your own and really own them.

How to Adapt Recipes to Suit Your Own Needs

Sugars are sugars. It is about choosing sugars that you can afford and that you want to work with.

Ingredient Swaps

| Can't eat/ Don't like .... | Try instead... |

|---|---|

| Certain nuts | Other nuts or seeds ( or don't use them at all) |

| Chickpeas | Other pulses / beans |

| Grains | Other nuts or seeds ( or don't use them at all) |

| Coconut oil | Olive oil |

| Specific vegetable | Substitute with other vegetables |

| Eggs (Baking) | Pureed banana or apple or a chia or flax eggs |

| Eggs (Scrambled) | Scrambled silken tofu |

| Eggs (For Meringue) | Chickpea water |

| Cow's Dairy | Goats or sheep dairy, cashew, hazlenut, almond, soya or other non- dairy milk |

| Dairy Yoghurt | Goats or sheep yoghurt , cashew, hazlenut, almond, soya or other non- dairy yoghurt |

| Gluten Carbohydrate | Starchy vegetables like parsnips, white potatoes and sweet potatoes |

| Gluten Flour | Buckwheat and almond flour |

| Gluten-based snack | Rice cakes, chickpea crackers and oat cakes |

| Fresh berries | Frozen berries |

| Honey | Maple syrup, a quality unrefined sugar or a date paste |

| Almond flour | Hazelnut flour, polenta, oat flour or just regular flour |

| Fresh herbs | A tablespoon or any fresh herbs with half a teaspoon of any dried herbs. Also arugula/rocket |

Remember these alternatives aren't necessarily healthier, they are just alternatives. Make sure to read the ingredient label

Key Question

When using Buckwheat flour in recipes can you replace exact amounts if you were to use normal plain flour ?

Answer

'It depends slightly on the recipe as each flour has somewhat different properties, so it does take a bit of trial-and-error. Sometimes I'll add a little more, sometimes a little less, but aim to reach the desired consistency of the mix I'm making rather than adding an absolute like-for-like quantity. I also find that the taste of buckwheat (which is relatively nutty) suits some recipes – such as pancakes, fritters or certain cakes – better than others.' -AF