In honour of International Food Day (which I’m told 16th October is) I bring you – drrrrrum roll please… THE world’s best pumpkin bread, just in time for Halloween and all those poor pumpkins that I hope won’t go to waste 🎃
The chocolate is optional, and I also add doTERRA wild orange because, well why not! I love my essential oils for their health benefits, how they make food taste and mostly, how they make my house smell 😀
To get all serious for a second though, and without being too “gratitude wankery”, I want to use international food day to give thanks. Even before my personal journey to remission, food was one of the prominent ways my mother and grandmother would provide love through nourishment. My mum still does it to this day. If I’m ill she’ll come round with warm, nourishing foods. When I had newborns, she cooked, once again, warming, nourishing foods. The subtle science of Ayurveda is not something my mother ever learnt; for her and the Jewish women in headscarves and aprons before her, it was common sense, a way to conflate love with physical nourishment.
My journey to remission was also paved by the importance of nutrition, and learning that with food we either fuel the body or feed dis-ease was one of the greatest lessons of my life. Of course I allow myself birthday cake or the odd coffee and take away, but on the whole this philosophy is what keeps me wanting to fuel my body with only *real* food that I know will serve a positive purpose.
My mother passed on her passion for cooking and I try to do it with as much love and devotion as she still does, even in her mid-60s – though during weekday meals when it’s “feeding time at the zoo” I most certainly do not always achieve this! .
So… in homage to this day and to my mother, two of the most important loves of my life, I hereby give you, la recipe…
Ingredients
1 cup pumpkin steamed and mashed
3 eggs or 3 flax eggs
4 heaped tbsp nut butter of choice (I use cashew)
1/4 cup maple
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 drops doterra wild orange (optional)
2 + 1/3 cups ground almonds
1 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Handful vegan chocolate chips (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 180*
Mix wet ingredients in a blender
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
Fold dry into wet and pour into a lined loaf tin.
Top with choc chips if using and bake for 35-40 mins until golden on top and cooked through – it really is that easy!
