Remote living, Chickpea flatbread, Date & Pecan Slice

Living on a farm has its good points and bad points. 

Good – 

• lots of fresh air
• peace & quiet
• the opportunity to have a vegie garden and orchard
• a more laid-back lifestyle (well, when its not calving, sowing, harvest and so on!)  

Bad – 

• lack of adult company (or any company!)
• access to anything – schools, doctors, professional services, et al
• lots of high fat, high-sugar, low-nutritional-value food at any event you attend
• lack of shops

OK I’m sure they are more for both lists, but the big drawback when eating a highly nutritious diet is the lack of choice or even total availability of some products.   For example, my local town does not stock tamari – about 4 different types of soy sauce apparently but not the wheat free tamari.   So frustrating!   And if you want anything different to the standard fruit and veg, well, you're out of luck.

And of course, you can’t grow everything .  Even if you could most of it would take months to grow, dry and so on.   Tinned beans is a lifesaver but hey we all need variety !

In my effort to find nutritional yeast as a reported “cheesy” taste to dishes, I thought I would go online and let my fingers do the walking … as they used to say in the old yellow pages advertisements.

I found a few places that had various sized bags, most were small and postage was expensive.  I’m not sure how I found it, but eventually I located the Organic Buyers Group in Sydney.  A webstore, free to join, they deliver FREE to Sydney suburbs and only $10 to everywhere else, regardless of the order size.   

There I found nutritional yeast (a big size), organic dried chickpeas, lentils and black beans (the black beans are called 'turtle' beans), GM free popping corn (I air pop it), sinful Medjool dates and mixed berries, sundried (and not oiled!) tomatoes, organic dried coconut, a bag to make my own nut milk and so much more.    They also were happy to order in specific items that I needed (but failed to get last time I was in Mudgee at the health food store) and got them in within the week.    

Their customer service is top notch, their prices competitive and best of all, its all ORGANIC!  Do check them out  and tell them I sent you :)

(Now, if only I could find a vegetable & fruit supplier who had some of the more unusual items and delivered I’d be set!)

Anyway, with a few of the more unusual items in my possession, I embarked upon some trial and error recipes.  I just had to try out that nutritional yeast.  I found the easiest to be a chickpea flatbread  or “omelette”.

Chickpea Flatbread/Omlette

Serves 2-4

(original recipe via Eat to Live Facebook group – the one below is ‘tweaked’ to be easy)

Ingredients:

1 cup besan (chickpea) flour

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

½ tspn Herbs du Provence

1 small clove garlic, crushed.

For flatbread:

1. Mix all together and let sit for 10 minutes.   
2. Heat oven to moderate.  
3. On parchment or silicon mat, pour mixture to desired sized flatbreads.   
4. Cook approximately 15 minutes.  
5. Let cool slightly before peeling off parchment or lifting away from silicon mat.  

(NB. If you prefer to cook fresh each time, mix up the ingredients, without the water and garlic and leave in a jar.  When ready to cook use 1/3 mix 1/3 water and a tiny bit of crushed garlic for 1-2 flatbreads.)

For omelette:

1. Add ¾ tspn of baking powder.
2. Mix all together and let sit for 10 minutes,
3. Heat oven to moderate.
4. Line a small loaf pan with parchment paper and pour mix in.    
5. Add chopped lightly steamed vegetables if desired and stir through.   
6. Cook till mixture is firm (not runny).   
7. Let cool 5 minutes before turning out from tin and peeling off parchment paper.

(NB.  I tried this on the stovetop but without oil and a non-stick pan, it was a big mess!)

Now, these are tasty, but not “cheesy”.   The mix has its own unique flavour I guess, and its good.  Just don’t expect it to be like a cheese omelette or cheese bread!

The other thing I made that was super yummy, was date and pecan slice.   So sweet and “moreish”.  And possibly something that you should limit, but my answer is just don’t make it very often – if I only make it once a month then I can’t be over eating it :)

Date & Pecan Slice

(photo at top)

(amended recipe using as a basis the Date Pecan Squares recipe on Hallelujah Acres )

1 cup organic dates

½ cup pecans

1/4 vanilla pod, scraped

1 cup organic raisins

1 cup desiccated coconut

1. Using a food processor, grind pecans to a fine meal (but not to ‘butter’).
2. Add pitted dates and raisins and seeds from vanilla pod.
3. Process until a dough like consistency – if necessary add a tablespoon or two of water if too dry.
4. Add ½ cup of coconut  and pulse till blended.
5. Line a loaf pan with non stick baking paper and sprinkle ¼ cup coconut over base.
6. Place date and pecan mixture on top and spread to cover bottom layer of coconut.  Sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup coconut.
7. Cover and chill.
8. Cut into small bite size squares and serve.  
9. Keep in refrigerator in airtight container.

I have a Melbourne Cup gathering to go to this week and thought I would take these.  Although I thought I might make these to look like truffles instead.  I'm going to take teaspoons of the mixture and roll till round in my palm, and then coat in coconut. 

Enjoy!