Russian Blueberry Tartlets (Chernika Tartaletki)

Bite sized treats are always my favourite - they're no mess and easy to eat but most of all they just look super cute. I guess the only problem is they're too easy to eat - you just keep going back for another and another and....

These little cute blueberry tartlets were delicious. They could be made with other berries too, or a mixture. Whatever you like really. They're a Russian recipe, which means they're served with a very Russian little dollop of sweetened sour cream.

Chernika Tartaleki

Ingredients
Pastry:
2 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tbsp. castor sugar
Pinch salt
1/2 cup nuttelex (or other vegan margarine)
2/3 cup icy water

Blueberry Filling:
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (unthawed)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tbsp. maple syrup

For serving;
1 cup vegan sour cream
2 tbsp. castor sugar

To Make:
1. To make the pastry, combine all the ingredients except the water in a food processor and blitz until you have a mixture which looks like fine breadcrumbs. Gradually add in the ice water until the mixture comes together to form a dough, it should be wet enough to hold together but not sticky enough to stick o your fingers as you form it into a ball (add more water or flour as needed t get it to the right consistency). Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
3. Combine the blueberries and corn-starch in a bowl and md until all the blueberries are coated. Add the maple syrup and stir through.
4. Take half the dough from the fridge and roll it out on a floured benchtop to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out as many 3 inch circles as you can and then re roll the scraps and cut again. Lightly grease a muffin pan and place a circle of dough in each one. Fill with as much blueberry filling as it will hold and bake for about 10 minutes, turning the tray around halfway through to ensure even cooking.
5. Repeat with all the remaining dough and filling. Cool the cooked tarts.
6. Combine the vegan sour cream with the sugar and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
7. Just before serving, add a dollop of the sweetened sour cream to the top of each little tart.


Makes about 2 dozen.

Blueberry & Avocado Salad with Candied Walnuts

Living in Australia, trips to Europe are a big deal. It's the other side of the world - the flights are long, exhausting and expensive! But I was adamant to make it over there last year to visit a dear friend. I was thrilled to escape the Sydney winter and spend my time strolling around beautiful cobblestone streets in a European summer. I've already posted a few post from my travels, you can check them out here:

Sweets in Sweden - A Photographic Diary
Wild Blueberries on the Stockholm Archipelagoes
A Day in Riga - Buildings, Berries & Black Balsam

You might notice a recurring theme - loads of fresh berries! We were so spoilt for fresh berries throughout our trip. Check out these gorgeous berries piled high in stalls on the side of the streets in Riga (Latvia):

In Australia punnets of blueberries or raspberries are always an expensive treat - even when they're in season. So it's no wonder that I ate them to my hearts content and came home with a mind full of berry inspiration! Now, Northern Europe is heading into winter and sunny Sydney is almost in summer, which means blueberries here are about as cheap as they'll ever get. So I took my inspiration from these gorgeous pictures and the memories of all those yummy berries & picked up a couple of punnets of blueberries to experiment with. 

Blueberry & Avocado Salad with Candied Walnuts

Ingredients

4 tbsp brown sugar

4 tbsp water

1/2 cup walnut halves

2 cups baby spinach

1 large ripe avocado

1 punnet blueberries

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Cracked black pepper

To Make

1. To make the candied walnuts - combine the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved to form a simmering syrup. Add the walnut halves and stir continusouly while the syrup simmers. Cook for at least 5 minutes, or until the liquid has all cooked away and you are left with the coated walnuts. Transfer the walnuts to a sheet of non stick baking paper, breaking up any clumps, and place in the fridge to harden.

2. Line a salad bowl with the baby spinach leaves. Top with cubes of the avocado and then the fresh blueberries.

3. Combine the olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice and vinegar and whisk well until combined. Drizzle over the avocado & blueberries.

4. Top with candied walnuts and a generous amount of cracked black pepper.

Serves 2-4 as a side salad or as part of a buffet.

Also featured in the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.

{Healthy & Vegan} Blueberry & Mulberry Porridge

Since coming back from Europe where I stuffed myself with every delicious cake I came across (not to mention quite a lot of mashed potato and amazing breads), I'm very proud to say that I've managed to lose the extra kilos that I gained while I was travelling for 6 weeks. I've been on a conscious health kick, and I'm really glad that it has paid off! I feel good, look a lot better and have more energy from eating less of those incredibly tempting things which are just so bad for you.

Breakfasts are a big challenge for me, they always have been. I never feel that hungry in the mornings but I know that it's unhealthy to skip breakfast. But I don't want to eat anything too big or with too many calories for breakfast because then I have to limit what I eat during the rest of the day to make up for it (which is no fun at all!). 

Luckily, spring means that there are lots of delicious and healthy fruits and berries which you can use to make your healthy meals special. At the moment we're having a bit of a blueberry craze, because it's so nice that they have come down in price. Out the back our mulberry tree is producing lovely berries (although a lot less this year than usual because it has been viciously pruned by our next door neighbour!) which are getting incorporated into a lot of meals. This lovely porridge needs no sweeteners and is full of juicy berries. The recipe serves two people and each serving is filling, but only 194 calories plus it's about 20% of your recommended daily calcium intake. So it's the perfect way to start your day! If you can't find mulberries then use any berries you like, or leave them out and just have blueberries.

Healthy Blueberry & Mulberry Porridge

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened oat milk

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 punnet blueberries

1 punnet of mulberries

To Make

1. Place the oat milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.

2. Add the oats and simmer until they are cooked, and the porridge is nice and thick (if it gets too thick and dry, add water a little bit at a time and stir vigorously until you get the consistency you like).

3. When the oats are almost done, add the blueberries and mulberries.

4. Serve immediately. You can add fresh berries or other fruit on top if you like.

Serves 2

NOTE~ The berries will only be lightly cooked, if you like them cooked more then add them at the same time you add the oats. 

Wild Blueberries on the Stockholm Archipelagos

We've just recently come back from an amazing trip in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Riga, St. Petersburg and Tallinn. There were so many amazing food experiences going on in these countries but I have so say one of the most memorable food experiences was the wealth of gorgeous berries growing around. Berries were sold in big punnets in street stalls for very cheap in Sweden, Denmark and in Riga and we are a lot of berries.

On only our second day after arriving in Scandinavia we took a little day trip out to the Stockholm Archipelagos. We only had one day so we picked an archipelago called Grinda which was a quite small island with lots of lovely plants and animals all over it. It took us a couple of hours by ferry to get out there but it was a lovely place to spend the day.

We strolled all over the whole island and had lunch by the water. A couple of little friends stopped to watch us have lunch, hanging around hoping for some crumbs.

After lunch we went on a long walk over the island down a narrow little walking track through forests and over rocky outcrops. But along the way we happened to spy this.... See all those little shrubs growing all over the ground? They turned out to be.... blueberry bushes! They were everywhere, a carpet of blueberry bushed all over the forest floor.

Not only were they blueberry plants... they were covered in little tiny blueberries. They were small and tangy blueberries and absolutely delicious. We ate handful after handful of them as we walked along!

Vegan Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins (plus variations)

This is a basic blueberry muffin recipe with the added specialness of the oat bran, which gives it a delicious porridge kind of flavour. These blueberry muffins are also incredibly healthy overall and make a great breakfast or afternoon tea. I'm eating them for breakfast right now in fact. Given that these ones are your basic plain blueberry muffins I have added some variations down the bottom for those of you who fancy something a bit different.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 cup oat bran

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup soy or oat milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup apple sauce

2 tbsp canola or rice bran oil

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries (You can also use fresh blueberries, however, I prefer to use frozen because a) they are more cost effective and b) fresh blueberries should be eaten fresh and not baked with)

To Make:

1. Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees C.

2. Put the flour, oat bran, sugar, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix well to combine and remove lumps (a whisk or a fork work well for this).

3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the soy milk. Mix well to combine. Add the apple sauce, canola oil, vanilla and lemon zest and mix well.

4. Just before cooking stir through the blueberries. You have 2 options here, you can either mix them well to make your muffins come out a  purpley-greeny colour or you can mix very gentle and sparingly so that your muffins come out slightly marbled/swirly looking - either way make sure the blueberries are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

5. Either grease a muffin tray well or cheat a bit and use cupcake liners (which I did - it's just easier!!). Fill the tray/liners to the top and then bake for 23-25 mins. 

6. Remove from the oven when they are golden on top and transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Variations:

Orangey Blueberry Muffins:

Substitute 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice for the soy milk and use orange zest instead of lemon zest.

Mixed Berry Muffins:

Substitute frozen mixed berries for the blueberries.

Blueberry Pecan Muffins:

Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the batter just before adding the blueberries. Top each muffin with a pecan for decoration.

Double Blueberry Muffins:

Add reduce the brown sugar to 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup blueberry jam to the mix.

Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins:

Reduce the amount of blueberries to 1 cup and include 2/3 cup vegan white chocolate chips.

Blueberry Wheat Bran Muffins:

Substitute wheat bran for the oat bran.