Sweetness and dinner…

Ok, this is a picture I’ve used before… but the giant among butternuts isn’t entirely gratuitous to this post…!

Although these two had more to do with tonight’s dinner….

But before I get on to what looks an unlikely pairing, a not altogether unrelated ramble 🙂

Back in my early 20s, my diet was so bad, I’m fairly surprised I’m here now! Although, in relation to some, it wasn’t that bad – I hardly ate fast food, takeaways, etc even then, it was heavy on the white bread/processed/rubbish side and very light on the fruit/vegetables/anything decent side 🙂

Even before my coeliac diagnosis three years ago, my diet was improving, as I started seeing sense and realising healthy food actually tasted better! But that diagnosis obviously made me change it completely – and all for the better.

I hope people like Katie and Freya will forgive me for saying that, back in those seriously unhealthy days, I’d have assumed any restricted diet, say veganism, would be boring because of its limitations… but people assume mine is too now and, from my own discoveries and those two girls’ fantastic blogs, among others, I’ve realised that the interestingness of any diet is all down to the creativity – and interestingness – of the person eating it!

Take this recipe.

I made this “cauliflower risotto” other week and LOVED it. (Thank you, Alisa!) It was so good and I realised, after I’d eaten it with my usual mountain of steamed veg, I’d just had an entirely vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free dinner. AND, I’d challenge any omnivore, including my old self, not to love it and feel completely satisfied afterwards…

But the cauliflower rice was so good, I started thinking about how else I could use it. After a “paella” attempt (nice but basically the same dish with prawns and saffron!) my thoughts moved on…

Then, as I cycled up the yard the other day, the random thought popped into my head about making the dish sweet. And here it is…

 I took:

 100g cauliflower, grated

100g butternut, grated

half a banana, sliced thinly

60ml coconut milk

10g dessicated coconut

5g pine nuts

1tsp brown sugar

 I ground the pine nuts and coconut together till they clumped. Then, I sauted the butternut and cauliflower together over a low-medium heat. After a few minutes, as they were softening, I added the sliced banana to the pan and carried on stir-frying.

 When everything was nearly soft enough, I poured in the coconut milk and let it cook together for a few minutes. When it was all nicely soft and mixed in, I took the pan off the heat and stirred the ground nuts/coconut in, mixing well, with the brown sugar.

 When I put it in the bowl, it looked a bit all one colour! So I hastily nuked some frozen strawberries in the microwave with the rest of the sliced banana.

Oh. My God.

I don’t make a habit of having pudding for dinner but this was amazing! Rich, creamy, sweet but not too sweet…. bliss 🙂

The strawberries gave it a tang (I’d add more next time) the bananas gave it sweetness and the coconut milk just gave it – everything it needed! And although it is pudding for dinner, this bowl also contained two vegetable servings and one of fruit!

 Happy, happy days…. 🙂