thursday recipe: Ruth's spelt crepes with avo, fetta, lemon and sprouts

Before we get to the recipe, let's take in the view for a moment.

Who wouldn't want to wash the dishes with this magical garden to gaze upon?

Today's recipe comes from my dear friend Ruth who we were lucky enough to spend a beautiful Sunday morning with, and her delightful family, in their sun soaked back garden pictured above during our stay in the Byron Bay area.

The table was set with fresh paw paw and lime, pumpkin and rice bread toasted, home made marmalade, hot chai and Ruth's wonderful paper thin spelt crepes. The children all clambered for strawberries and to spread their crepes with honey or maple syrup, while the grown ups tried Ruth's savoury filling of avocado, marinated fetta, Ruth's sprouts and a squeeze of lemon. Roll like a wrap and enjoy, no cutlery required.

I say Ruth's sprouts because Ruth and her partner Michael run a business selling beautiful fresh sprouts at Byron Bay and Mullumbimby farmer's markets. If you are local or visiting the markets buy some of their sprouts, they are the best really they are! You'll be hooked.

The sprout mix can contain sprouted blue peas, mung beans, fenugreek, alfalfa, lentils, soaked almonds...and perhaps there are some others I can't remember right now...(if you are reading Ruth please feel free to add in the comments :)

We were lucky to have lemons plucked from their backyard tree by Ruth with the help of one of her twin babes.

I know its all sounding pretty idyllic, and well it was.  Not every winter morning is this sunny or full of joy but it was one of those mornings where the children all played happily, the adults enjoyed endless cups of chai and we all savoured the moment.

Ruth has such a beautiful feel for creating tasty, nourishing food. She rarely follows a recipe except when baking, so when I asked her for this recipe it went along the lines of, "hmmmm lots of eggs, I use lots of eggs. I filled that big bowl with flour and used maybe 6 or 7 eggs. I made a well in the centre of the flour maybe 4 or 5 cups, cracked the eggs in and gently whisked them in so as not create lumps, then I added milk until it was really thin. Oh and a pinch of salt. This batch had a pinch of salt. Oh and it must be made the night before. I don't know if that's an old wives tale but it is something I always do, make the mixture the night before."

For those of you who feel lost at the mere thought of throwing ingredients together and hoping for the best I had a go at making Ruth's recipe for you with measurements. Ruth changes the flour around depending on what she has in the cupboard, sometimes buckwheat, sometimes wholemeal spelt mixed with white spelt, other times some rice flour gets thrown in too.

So this weekend get a few friends together, pray for a good dose of winter sun and make a batch of Ruth's spelt crepes.

Ruth's spelt crepes with avo, fetta, lemon and sprouts

Ingredients

2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
3 eggs
1 cup of milk of choice
1 and 1/3 cups of water
pinch of salt (optional)
1 large ripe avocado, roughly 'smashed' in a bowl with a fork
1 container Barambah organic marinated fetta (this just happened to be the one Ruth had)
Sprouts of your choice
1 lemon cut into wedges to squeeze
Butter or coconut oil for frying

(makes 12-14 depending on the size of your pan)

To make

Make the mixture the night before.
Place flour in large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the centre and crack eggs into well.
Using a hand whisk, gently whisk the eggs into the flour and begin to gradually add the milk and then the water.
Continue whisking until smooth.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning take the mixture out of the fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
Depending on how thick or thin you like your crepes you may need to add some more milk or water, if you like them paper thin like Ruth's you want the mixture to be very thin, the consistency of water.
If you are feeding a crowd and want to cook a stack and keep them warm, turn your oven on low and as you cook the crepes add them to a plate, cover with foil and keep in the oven.
Heat a large round frypan or crepe pan if you have one, and add a teaspoon of butter or coconut oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan.
When the fat is sizzling pour in enough mixture to coat the bottom of the pan.
Turn the heat down a touch if too high, cook until bubbles appear and then flip over and cook other side until golden.
As Ruth says, the first couple are never the best of the batch, not that anyone complains!

To assemble

Place some smashed avocado, crumbled fetta and a sprinkling of sprouts in the centre, squeeze lemon over the top and roll up. So delicious and they would also make a nourishing afternoon tea alternative to cake!

wholefood step-by-step: # 20 buckwheat pancakes

Who doesn't love a pancake for breakfast?

For me, this buckwheat pancake mix is about as close as I get to 'convenience' food.

I love the nuttiness of the buckwheat flour. And I love that they contain no wheat despite buckwheat having the word wheat in it, in fact buckwheat is a seed related to the rhubarb family. So, if you'd like to reduce the amount of wheat in your family's diet for whatever reason these are a good alternative to wheat flour pancakes.

If you are in the habit of buying pancake mixes in plastic shaker bottles do read the ingredients. Most of these style of pancake mixes contain additives like these whitewings original pancake mix:

Wheat flour, sugar, wheat starch, skim milk powder, raising agents (sodium bicarbonate, 341,541), vegetable shortening (Vegetable oil, glucose syrup solids,milk protein, emulsifiers (soybean lecithin, 471,481), mineral salt (339), vegetable gum (466), antioxidant (306)), emulsifier (471 derived from soy), egg white, flavour, salt, vegetable gum (xanthan). Contains wheat, soy, milk and egg as indicated in bold type. Made on production line that also produces products containing tree nuts.

And while the additives aren't great for your health, the plastic shaker bottle won't do the health of the environment any favours either!

The Orgran mix pictured is very easy to turn into batter, I'm not too fussy with the measurements and just put in a couple of eggs and enough rice milk until I have a consistency I like.  The packet directions suggest 2-3 eggs and you use either milk or water, sometimes I also add ground cinnamon and a few tablespoons of natural yoghurt to the batter.

I like to slice apple or banana thinly, cook one side of the pancake and then while the pancake is in the pan, press the fruit slices into the uncooked side, the flip and cook. Banana with toasted walnuts and a splash of maple syrup or apple and cinnamon are my favorite toppings.

If you'd like to try wholefood mama Michelle's sprouted buckwheat pancakes go here.

Have you tried buckwheat pancakes? What are you favorite toppings?