Christmas is a time for relaxing with your loved ones and indulging in some decadent festive food. While the holiday season is a time to forget about the diet, keeping your hormones happy with some nutrient rich recipes is always a good idea. We have put together three delectable festive recipes that not only taste amazing but will do wonders for your hormones. The recipes featured are simple, easy to make, and can be premade for the family to enjoy throughout the Christmas break.
Mushroom Pate
Mushrooms have come out of hiding! In recent years there have been many amazing discoveries about their benefits. Packed with a tonne of essential vitamins and minerals, they are low-calorie, a good source of vitamin D, and add umami flavour to many different recipes.
Our mushroom pate is a simple flavoursome entree, a perfect starter for your Christmas lunch.
Serves: 4
Time: 20 Mins Plus Cooling Time
Ingredients:
- 350g Swiss mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
- 50g walnuts, broken into smaller pieces
- 1 small onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon organic butter
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
- parsley, chopped
- thyme, leaves picked and chopped, extra few springs for decorating
- 1 tablespoon Tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
- ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- salt and pepper
Method:
- Heat a small pan and add butter. Once the butter has melted add onion and let it cook for 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and the bay leaf. Cook for another minute.
- Add mushrooms, soy sauce and rosemary. Cook on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes (until all the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated and they look cooked).
- Add parsley and thyme and keep cooking for 2-3 extra minutes
- Remove the bay leaf (discard) and a few slices of mushrooms for serving. Place the mixture into a food processor with walnut pieces, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Blend until your preferred consistency (chunky or smoother)
- Cool in the fridge before serving (can be made a day before). Decorate with saved sliced and cooked mushrooms and a few sprigs of thyme. Serve from a lovely earthy coloured dish with sourdough bread, flaxseed or rye cracker, enjoy!
Sweet Potato Frittata
Eggs are usually associated with breakfast, but keep in mind they are one of the best foods for balancing hormones, as they have a positive impact on insulin and ghrelin hormones in the body. Specifically, insulin controls blood sugar while ghrelin controls appetite. Eggs provide a healthy dose of choline, which is an important nutrient for brain health.
Sweet potato is simply an amazing root vegetable: high in fibre and antioxidants, incredibly rich in beta carotene which is converted to vitamin A to support good vision and immune system. Despite its name it is considered low on the glycemic index, raising blood sugar slowly and preventing any sharp spikes. One medium sweet potato provides all the vitamin A we need in a day!
Our second hero vegetable here is broccoli: a member of the cruciferous family, it can play a role in metabolizing hormones, including estrogen. Packed with phytonutrients, vitamins and antioxidants it helps support healthy estrogen levels and overall hormone health.
Red capsicum adds vitamin C and some lovely colour to our Christmas frittata.
It can be served as a main meal with dark leafy greens or steamed greens as beans, peas, snowpeas or as a side for your favourite christmas meat/fish.
Serves: 6
Time: 90 Mins
Ingredients:
- Melted butter to grease
- 1 large (about 600 g) sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced
- 500 g broccoli florets
- 1 medium red capsicum, diced
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
- 80 g coarsely grated cheddar
- 6 eggs, lightly whisked
- 300 ml thickened cream
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 25 g grated parmesan for extra sharpness
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180 C, lightly grease a round 24cm base cake pan with melted butter
- Place sweet potato slices in a large steamer over a saucepan of simmering water. Steam, covered, for 7-8 minutes, add broccoli and keep steaming for another 3-4 minutes. Add capsicum for the last minute. Do not overcook!
- While vegetables are cooling, use a fork to whisk together eggs, cream and parsley, season with salt and pepper.
- Arrange one-third of slightly cooled sweet potato over the base of the tin, top with half broccoli and half capsicum. Sprinkle with one-third of cheddar. Repeat. Top with remaining sweet potato and cheddar. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and sprinkle with parmesan.
- Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until just set. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving
This dish can be made a night before. Keep in the fridge, but before serving warm up slightly
Chocolate Cake With Salted Hazelnut Cream
A lovely thought: chocolate cake is the little black dress of desserts, it is always appropriate. Do we need to say more?
Serves: 8
Time: 1 Hour
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 90 g coconut flour
- 50 g cornflour
- 40 g raw cacao
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 150 g sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 200 ml kefir ( or buttermilk )
- 2 tablespoons good quality olive oil
- 100 ml hot water
- 2 medium organic eggs
Cream:
- 120 g soft organic butter
- 60 g icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 70 g hazelnut butter (no sugar added)
- Hazelnuts ( roasted, skinless, chopped) and seasalt flakes for decorating (freezer-dried raspberries)
Method:
The Base
- Prepare a 20 cm diameter springform with baking paper. Preheat oven to 175 C
- Mix together all dry ingredients for cake. Add kefir (buttermilk), olive oil, hot water and slightly mixed eggs
- Pour into prepared tin and smooth down
- Bake for about 30 minutes. The cake should be still moist in the centre when checked with a toothpick. Let cool before removing from the springform
The Cream
- Whip butter until it looks white. Add icing sugar and whip a bit more until completely mixed. Add hazelnut butter and spend another minute whipping. Add a pinch of fine sea salt for a sweet/salty taste.
- Decorate cooled down cake with the cream. Be as creative as you wish: smooth it down or make some spikes. Sprinkle with hazelnuts and sea salt flakes. Freeze-dried raspberry pieces add a bit festive colour and sourness
The decorated cake will keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days, just cover with an empty bowl turned upside down to keep it moist.
While also being extremely delicious, all our recipes will help give your hormones a much needed boost over Christmas and into the New Year. We hope you give each of them a try, and if you do, be sure to take a picture and tag us on social media!
Have a merry and healthy Christmas!
