Healthy Apple Crumble

by Claire, 2 years ago

This week, we have a guest blog from Part Time Veggie, whose given us an INCREDIBLE Healthy Apple Crumble Recipe (wheat, dairy and added sugar free!) I tried it myself on Saturday night- it’s amazing!! Enjoy!

Winter is a bitch. There’s no sugar coating it. After a hazy summer of tan lines and chilled chardonnay, getting up at 6.30am for a run in 8 degrees feels like a mean spirited tactical offence by the other team. To rub salt in the wound, it’s also the ‘season in which summer bodies are made’, a motivational poster that forces you to go against your natural hibernating instinct and freeze your cahoonas off for the sake of your constitution (and those summer abs). Whoever came up with that quote, come at me bro!

As you may have gathered, I’m not a fan of the cold. I am, however, a big fan of health and fitness, and despite my sarcasm I do make a genuine effort during winter to put right all the wrongs I did in summer (namely my helpless choosing of sundowners over Shape class). But let’s face it, being healthy in winter is tough and choosing health takes real commitment, particularly when it comes to food. 

I’m not a glutton for punishment and I am highly allergic to deprivation, so in winter I like to eat in a way that both nourishes me and feeds my rabid desire for warm, gooey puddings. My winter food philosophy is quite simple – I subscribe to an eating plan I like to call wholesome fulfilment. It’s wholesome, because the food lifestyle I have chosen incorporates wholefoods that help my body to operate at its optimum level, but it’s also fulfilling, because I don’t believe that denying yourself in a time when your body is craving warmth and comfort has any benefits.

The trick is to find healthy alternatives to your favourite guilty pleasures. During my health journey, I’ve become convinced that there are wholefood options for pretty much every dessert, snack or naughty treat that you can imagine…and if there isn’t, then challenge accepted!

Slowly but surely we are realising that healthy cooking doesn’t need to taste bland. Whenever I can, I introduce my friends to my best, tastiest recipes to underline this, some of which I will be sharing here with you over the coming weeks. Sometimes they flop spectacularly, it’s true, but I bet the guy who discovered the recipe for Lindt chocolate had a few epic fails as well.

Today I’m going to share with you my recipe for healthy apple crumble. I never use sugar in my recipes, as I believe refined sugar is responsible for most of the evils in the nutritional world. Instead I use the natural sugars found in fruits and supplement that with raw honey as needed. Coconut oil replaces butter, and instead of a carb heavy crumble I use a combination of flax, oats and nuts to create a filling crumble full of healthy fats. Note to those with a sweet tooth – the amount of nuts and flax make this quite decadent, and as with any dessert, you should avoid overindulging. Even when you’re eating healthy foods, you should still always be mindful of the greatest nutritional tip of all time: everything in moderation.

Healthy Apple Crumble

Ingredients:

• 5-6 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 cup ground flaxseed
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup flaked almonds
• ¼ cup dried dates, chopped
• ½ cup pecan nuts, chopped
• ¼ cup coconut flakes
• ¼ cup mixed seeds
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• 3 tbsp raw honey
• 2 tsp cinmamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (can use essence instead)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Bring a small pot of water to the boil and par-cook the apple slices (you can bake them from raw, but I tend to always par-cook fresh fruit, just to be sure).
3. Place apple slices in pie dish and drizzle with lemon juice, vanilla extract and 1 tsp cinnamon.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and mix until the texture resembles coarse sand.
5. Cover apples with the crumble mixture and place in the oven.
6. Bake for 40 – 60 minutes or until the apples are tender and top is golden.
7. Serve with Greek or coconut yoghurt for the healthy option, or a blob of ice-cream for the naughty version.

Tip: to keep the apples from browning while you prep, soak them in a bowl of water with lemon juice. Use 1 tsp of lemon juice for every cup of water.

Part Time Veggie is a health and wellness blog for normal people and is run by Lauren – a health and wellness nut, festival lover, terrible yogi, uninhibited wine consumer and all round normal girl, whose long term battle with digestion issues led to a complete diet overhaul and a the start of a beautiful journey to health. For more tasty recipes and uncensored views on the wellness industry, head over to www.parttimeveggie.co.za

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apple crumble dairy free full circle healthy part time veggie staying healthy during winter sugar free wheat free winter motivation winter wellness blog series

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Nutrition & Diet Tips Winter Motivation

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