Ethiopian Spice Giveaway - From Sangee!!

Here's the wonderful bundle of Ethiopian love I received from Fassica.
Shiro on the left, pure teff injera, and berbere on the right.

While stalking Instagram for new and tasty Ethiopian inspiration, I ran across Fassica! They're a small, newcompany based in California, who's goal is "to find a way to offer authentic Ethiopian spices and most importantly 100% Teff Injera (gluten free) to many through [their] website Fassica." People are always asking me which berbere I recommend, so you know I was all over this, right? 

I got in touch with Fassica, and they sent me over a huge bag of all teff injera, plus a bag of miten shiro and berbere. The best mail ever!! YUM SO GOOD!! 

Miten shiro, tucked in with our favorite Souf Fitfit (torn injera and veggies/herbs tossed in a sunflower seed sauce) and a green salad. Recipes from Teff Love.

I'm so excited to finally have an online, domestic source for Ethiopian pantries, I love and can recommend. I really hope folks start ordering from them, because they deserve the business, and also because the berbere from Frontier and Penzey's is not what you want for Ethiopian food! Folks continue to purchase these brands, which are almost all cayenne pepper, and then complain that my recipes are toooOOOoo spicy. Of course they are! You just added 3 tablespoons of cayenne pepper to that pot of lentils!!!! :((((((

Shiro, timatim fitfit, kale and doro wot with potatoes. I followed the video from Make Great Ethiopian Food for the doro wot, and cooked the onions for THREE HOURS, and added gardein Chick'n Scallopini and potatoes to make it vegan!!! Ha ha. Most doro wot cooks for longer. :-/

If you're worried about ordering injera online, Fassica packs theirs so securely, with padding and an ice pack, too. It's pretty much the most gorgeous pure-teff injera of all time, and I really wish I lived closer to them, so I could pick some up on when I'm hit by an Ethiopian whim. If you order some, be prepared to cook food to accompany it the day it arrives, because fresh injera needs to be used ASAP! Or if you have leftovers like I did, you can turn it into fitfit/firfir, or even dry it out in the fridge and make crunchy chips (dirkosh), which make the best hummus crackers--the tang in all teff injera cannot be duplicated.

Chocolate Brownie Cake

Yields 16 servings (more like 12 for me).

This chocolate cake is quite a delight, and it happens to be oil free, low in calories, and low in fat. It will make you think of dessert in a band-new light. Just serve this delightful cake to guests (or unsuspecting family members) and see whether they can tell it's closer to health food than junk food. My littlest say it tastes just like a brownie, and I don't disagree.

What You Need:

♥ 1 banana, mashed (about 2/3 cup)

♥ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

♥ 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

♥ 1/3 cup unrefined sugar, such as maple or coconut palm

♥ 1/3 cup agave syrup

♥ 1/2 cup unsweetened natural or Dutch-processed cocoa powder

♥ 1 teaspoon baking powder

♥ 1 teaspoon baking soda

♥ 1/2 teaspoon salt

♥ 2/3 cup teff flour

♥ 1 cup chickpea flour

♥ 1 cup water

What You Do:

Preheat your oven to 350F and line the bottom and the sides of an 8-inch square cake pan with parchment paper. To easily do this, cut two strips 8 inches wide x 12 inches long and crisscross them over each other to completely cover the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, vanilla extract, applesauce, unrefined sugar, agave, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 

Gradually add the teff flour and the chickpea flour along with the water and mix well until a smooth batter is formed. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Let cool briefly and then serve. Enjoy plain or top with chocolate glaze and/or fruit.

Per Serving: 112 calories, 1.3 g fat, 167 mg sodium, 24.2 g carbs and 3.7 g protein

Teff  Love  Cook  book  Recipes

A few weeks back, Da Capo Press sent me a review copy of Allyson Kramer's latest cookbook, Naturally Lean. Allyson and I met in the vegan blogging community many years ago and bonded because we both eat a gluten-free diet out of medical necessity. She's one of my favorite XGFX authors, and I can always count on her for delicious, creative recipes.

If you're not familiar with her cookbooks, they are:

♥ Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats (my favorite pancake recipe of all time lives inside)

♥ Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats From Around the World

♥ Sweet Eats for All

Athough Naturally Lean sounds like a diet cookbook (and can be used as one), it was written to offer recipes focused on nutrient-rich whole foods, rather than highly processed ingredients. The title comes in because Allyson believes if you eat more unprocessed whole foods like fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, greens and seeds, you'll consume less calories than you would from typically over processed foods.

For me, I'm stoked to have another cookbook full of delicious vegan and gluten-free recipes that are also refined sugar free. This means I can gobble up as much of the yummy desserts and savories in this book as I want (for the most part I ignore the serving size suggestions) and keep my arthritis and muscle crap at bay.

Naturally Lean is organized a bit differently than most cookbooks, which takes a little getting used to. Instead of recipes being grouped together by type, i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they're organized by ingredients: greens & crucifers, hearty grains, fabulous fruits, nuts & seeds, legumes, and squash, roots, & mushrooms. It's nothing to get chuffed about, a few well positioned sticky notes will help you out, or if you're a brainiac, you can even use the index!

                                   Flax and Chia Garlic Crackers.

So far I've made Flax and Chia Garlic Crackers, Red Quinoa Tabbouleh, Cinnamon Pumpkin Donuts and Chocolate Brownie Cake. Not to bullshit, all four of these recipes will probably go into heavy rotation here. I didn't have to go to the store to buy any ingredients except for tomatoes, which I buy weekly anyway, and everything came out A++++.

Flax and Chia Garlic Crackers
These were ridiculously easy to make and were gobbled up in a couple of days. My tip is to score the crackers before baking, and then they easily break up into perfect shapes when they're done. These would lend themselves to all sorts of different flavor combos.

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh chockful of fresh herbs, which is the way I love to eat. 
Herb it up!

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is the perfect summer food (parsley, tomatoes and cukes galore), and I've made this recipe three times already in the last week. Allyson's version has the perfect balance of olive oil to lemon and does not skimp or taste "diet-y." I left out the paprika, 'cuz I wanted the other flavors to shine, and I love how this recipe has you cooking quinoa with a crushed clove of garlic (Imash it in, instead of discarding as the recipe suggests).

Baked Cinnamon Butternut Squash Donuts 'cuz I'm a cheater.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Donuts
I cheated with these and used some steamed butternut squash I had in the freezer instead of pumpkin, and they were still wonderful. Unglazed, these are a bit muffin-like and since I wanted something a bit more decadent, I dipped mine in glaze. I mixed 1/4 cup melted coconut oil, 1/4 cup crunchy almond butter and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. It's warm here, so I dipped and chilled these multiple times to build up the glaze. YUMP.

Chocolate Brownie Cake

This cake is a keeper in the Kittee department. I've been eating it for breakfast everyday this week, since I've been in need of a wee caffeine rousing lately. I glazed my cake by mixing together 3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil, 4 tablespoons cacao powder, a little vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. I topped the glaze with coconut shreds and toasted hazelnuts and then tucked the whole cake away in the fridge to keep the topping solid. The recipe is shared with permission below!!