The Basics - recipes to learn by heart.
A little catch-up, our simple and inexpensive recipe staples to learn by heart, and our recipe for tahini biscuits.
Hello friend, it’s been a while between letters! We’ve been settling into our year of work and learning, seeing some live music (our family Christmas present!) , attempting to get our wild garden under some sort of control, cooking and eating food from our neglected but productive garden, going to the beach whenever possible (maintaining a sense of summer while we still can), and aiming to spend as much time as possible away from social media. It’s been gooood.
How about you? Did you join in on Clean Up Australia Day today? I meant to get a climate solution post to you about that earlier this week, but the week got away from me and we figure we should be thinking about cleaning up every day, so we’ll save it for another time and write about a couple of different ideas for this week.
Something I (Lauren) want to focus on this year is sharing more of how we keep food and waste-free living simple and affordable. One of my favourite things to do is simplify recipes down to their barest bones, using as few ingredients as possible, and in simple quantities. I like to strip them back so they’re easy to learn by heart. Then I add things later that might be seasonally available or on hand. Usually, they’re very budget-friendly recipes, and easy to make without creating waste. They’re how we save money and time living waste-free.
I realised I’ve been honing and compiling these recipes for some time now, sharing them with my kids so they’re armed with the basics to cook independently. These recipes are not by any means fancy, or food that will turn everyone into an amateur cook with the skills of a top chef. But they’re recipes that keep our household fed without much, and will set up basic skills that you can sharpen and add to in your own way. Maybe they’ll just make you think about things you already make and like and how they fit into your meal plan. Or maybe they’ll be too simple and basic for your household, and that’s totally ok too. But they do give you more of a glimpse into how the heck we make this all work. I’ll be sharing recipes throughout the year, alongside our Climate Solutions letters, which are still ongoing.
So with that, here’s a simple recipe for a biscuit/cookie that serves as a perfect sweet/salty snack for afternoon tea or your lunchbox. It’s actually one of the more costly recipes we bake. It’s a little luxurious, but it’s super quick and easy and quite filling. It’s also gluten, egg and dairy free, so great for sharing with vegan and gluten-free pals. Like shortbread, it can be quite dry and really should be consumed with a cup of tea for optimal enjoyment.
Tahini biscuits
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 cups almond meal
1 cup tahini
1/2 cup brown rice syrup / maple syrup
1/2 tsp sea salt
sesame seeds and extra sea salt for topping (optional)*
Let’s do this:
Preheat your oven to 170°C
Place all ingredients in a bowl
Mix until the ingredients form a dough
Place small balls (about 1 heaped tbsp) of dough onto a lined tray
Smoosh the balls down with your hand or the back of a spoon until about 1.5cm high
Sprinkle the tops of the raw biscuits with sesame seeds and extra salt
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Let the biscuits cool.
They’ll keep fresh at room temperature, in airtight storage, for up to a week.
*You can make variations on these basic flavours by adding chocolate chips or chunks, orange zest, cinnamon, or anything else that takes your fancy, but we recommend trying the plain sesame flavours first and seeing what you want to try next.
Stay tuned for a climate solution incoming in the next day or two!
Much love,
Lauren. x
Thanks for sharing. I just made these and they’re delicious!