Low carb London- Bargain eating at Leon

I haven't been doing these posts as regularly as I'd like to have, mainly because I usually eat food before I've remembered to photograph it, or alternatively because the place I am eating in is pretty busy and I don't fancy whipping my camera out and making a scene!

 j

Low carb grain free biscuits

I am not usually a big biscuit eater- it's one of the few sweet treats that I don't constantly crave. However from time to time I do crave them and so went on the prowl looking for recipes and was very excited by what I found!

I found this recipe for low carb shortbread on this website, there are lots of other cookie and biscuit recipes there so it's definitely well worth checking out! I'll definitely be on there again soon trying another out.

The recipe only uses four ingredients, all pretty run of the mill ones that you probably keep in (if you do much low carb cooking), and the whole thing takes about half an hour from start to finish!

I have linked to the recipe here, but I'll repeat it below. I halved it as I know it's dangerous for me to have too many biscuits around, obviously though, just adjust it accordingly if you want more. The original recipe says it makes 20 cookies, even using half the mixture I didn't manage 10 though, perhaps because I made them pretty much digestive sized whereas he must have made his traditional shortbread sized. I am not sure what size that is but it's definitely much smaller than digestive size! I would say I got 7 out of the mixture though, after I'd tried some of the mixture raw- don't judge me, or try it raw for that matter- it's far nicer cooked!

To make 7 (or 10 smaller ones), you will need:

• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1/4 cup of sweetener- I used candrel
• 1 cup of almond meal 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extra- he suggests 1/4 teaspoon, but I doubled it as I like to really taste it!
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon- this isn't in the original but I added it in as I love  cinnamon and vanilla together!

To make them:

• Preheat an oven to 200 degrees and line a baking tray with a baking sheet or greaseproof paper.
• Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well until combined into a thick dough. In the original recipe he suggests mixing the sweetener, butter and vanilla first and then adding the almond meal afterwards, I didn't do this though and it worked out just fine!
• Break small chunks off, roll into a ball then press onto your baking sheet so they're cookie shaped 
• Repeat until all the mixture has gone- aim for about 10...
• Pop in the oven for 10 minutes 
• Remove, enjoy and exercise portion control as they're very more-ish!

The original recipe says that each cookie has just over 1g net carbs in, bear in mind this is worked out once you've made ten cookies from the mixture, mine will obviously have slightly more

Guiltless afternoon tea at the Intercontinental Park Lane

Yes you did read the title right- guiltless afternoon tea, this was a new one to me as well, and something I was very keen to find out all about, given afternoon tea typically entails three different carbohydrate courses and lots of sugar and indulgence in general!

Broad bean and mint zoodles

 Well it is most definitely starting to feel like spring here in the UK, there's flowers everywhere now, the weather is very slightly warmer, and the evenings are longer. We even sat and ate and drank outside at home the other day, though it was perhaps not quite warm enough to have done it...  With this comes a desire to eat more spring/summery feeling foods. The other day was one of those days and prompted by the emergence of the first chive flowers if the year so far, I promptly whipped this simple dish up.

You need hardly any ingredients, and it tastes absolutely delicious!

You can also make the pea and mint mixture and eat it as a dip, it's a lovely fresh alternative to guacamole.

If you can't find chive flowers you can just finely chop a few chives instead and mix those in. I, however, was so excited to find my chives had flowered, that I couldn't resist. I've also had a few select borage flowers popping up, and I've got plenty of mint already. Definitely staring to feel excited about the upcoming growing season, especially as we are about to move house so I'll have a new garden to get started on!

For two people you will need:

• Two courgettes/ zucchini
• One cup of broad beans
• A small handful of spinach
• 1/2 cup of crème fraiche
• A few florets of cauliflower, I also used a big chunk from the base of the cauliflower
• A good handful of mint leaves
• A couple of chive flowers
• Microleaves to garnish- optional- I used purple radish

To make it:

• Spiralize your courgettes, I use this Spiralizer , and then set aside on some kitchen towel (some liquid may drain from them
• Cut your cauliflower into small pieces and steam for a few minutes until soft enough to easily pierce with a fork
• Pop your beans (they don't need cooking), spinach, mint (leave a couple of leaves out to garnish) and crème fraiche into a food processor and blend until smooth
• Empty your spiralized courgettes and drained cauliflower onto your kitchen surface and tip the minty mixture on top of them.
• Massage it altogether with your hands. This works a lot better than trying to do it with a fork or spoon which seems to break the zoodles up a lot and still doesn't manage to evenly distribute the mixture
• Pop into your bowl to serve, then tear the petals off the chive flowers and scatter them over the top followed by the micro leaves if you're using. them. These are both optional but the chive flowers will give a lovely light onion flavour.
• Enjoy, close your eyes and pretend it's still summer!