Carrot Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
375ml cups all-purpose flour
250ml white whole wheat flour
5ml baking soda
1.25ml salt
2.5ml baking powder

2.5ml ground cloves
10ml ground cinnamon
250ml oats (not instant)
190ml brown sugar
60ml white sugar
250ml coconut oil (or 2 sticks butter, softened)
2 large eggs
10ml vanilla extract
500ml grated carrot (3-4 carrots)
125ml flaked coconut
200ml chopped walnuts
icing sugar
milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180ºC. In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon and oats. Mix well and set aside.

With a mixer, beat together sugars and coconut oil in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add carrots, coconut and walnuts; blend until combined. Batter will be a lumpy.

Add flour mixture and blend at a low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 13-15 minutes. Watch them so they don't brown too much! Immediately transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

If you want your cookies a little sweeter, blend a small amount of icing sugar with a small amount of milk in a bowl. Add milk or powdered sugar until to the perfect consistency you like. Drizzle it over the cookies and serve. 

Enjoy!

Moroccan Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

3-4 carrots, thinly sliced

2.5ml ground cumin

60ml garlic-flavoured oil and vinegar dressing

30ml chopped fresh coriander leaves

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Cook the carrots by steaming or boiling in slightly salted water until they are just tender but not soft. Drain the carrots and leave for a few minutes to cool. Put them in a bowl.

Add the cumin, garlic dressing and coriander. Just before serving, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Pasta Slaw

Coleslaw is one of South Africa’s favourite salads, but we got tired of the ubiquitous cabbage and carrot smothered with mayonnaise and added pasta to it for an interesting variation.

I like to add a few extra special touches to this salad, which always goes down a treat, such as a couple of handfuls of raisins, sultanas or chopped dried apricots and some chopped nuts such as macadamias, pecans, walnuts or cashew nuts. Mix some fruit or nuts into the salad and sprinkle some on top to garnish.

Ingredients:

250g Elbow Macaroni

15ml olive oil

¼ cabbage, shredded finely

2 ribs of celery, finely sliced

1 large carrot, grated

½ 470g can crushed pineapple

250ml mayonnaise

60ml snipped chives

100ml sultanas (optional)

100g chopped macadamia nuts (optional)

Method:

Cook the macaroni according to the package instructions. Drain well and mix with the oil.

Combine the pasta, cabbage, celery, carrot, pineapple and some of the sultanas and macadamia nuts, if using, reserving some of each of the dried fruit and nuts for garnish, then mix in the mayonnaise.

Garnish with sultanas and macadamia nuts, if using, and snipped chives.