Honestly Healthy for Life – Healthy Alternatives for Everyday Eating

Posted on April 28, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

For my birthday this year Freya bought me this book. Honestly Healthy for Life – by Natasha Corrett and Vicki Edgson. She also got me some enamelware.

This book focuses very much on reducing acid intake – thus pretty much eliminating meat and dairy – and focusing on eating a lot more pulses, grains and vegetables – and in the correct proportions.

There are over 60 pages on dietary facts and how eating certain foods together will help you naturally lose weight, improve digestion and generally be healthier and have more energy and feel less bloated. Sounds good doesn’t it! Especially given I’ve been trying to do that anyway without any advice – cutting out meat and dairy, wheat and carbohydrates wherever I can.

I sat up in bed and worked my way through the book – and soon realised that these ladies use a lot of specialist ingredients you won’t find in any supermarket. When I was younger I remember watching Delia on TV and she’d say – ‘I’m using Mushrooms you can only find at the top of Mount Everest on 1st July – but you can use button mushrooms’ – and thought – yeh you can substitute things but where’s the fun in that – and how will you ever know what the dish was supposed to taste like. Besides it’s my birthday so I resolved to buy all the speciality ingredients – such as:

Black Rice Noodles
Umeboshi Plum Puree
Raw Cacao
Spirulina
Bee Pollen
Kuzu
Pumpernickel Bread
Chia Seeds
Coconut Oil
Hemp Seeds
Kombu Seedweed

to name but a few!

Recipes we’ve selected for this week include:

Chia Seed Porridge and Compote
Wild Mushroom Quinoa Risotto
Citrus Seaweed Salad
Granola Bars
Orange and Celeriac Soup
Tomato Tart
Raw Green Curry
Almond Berry Cake
Muesli
Green Smoothie
Quinoa, Lemon, Kale and Sesame Beetroot Salad
Puy Lentil, Brown Rice and Sweet Potato Salad

We’ve already made the Puy Lentil, Brown Rice and Sweet Potato Salad – as you may have seen. That was yummy – and I expect everything else will be too!

This is going to be an expensive weeks eating – the week’s shopping on Ocado was over £150 – and I spend another £60 on Amazon for the speciality ingredients!

I was so impressed with the first impressions of this book that I ordered their first book ‘Honestly Healthy – Eat With Your Body and Mind the Alkaline Way’ – shame that – my mother-in-law already had it and I could have pinched hers !

The day turned out to be a nightmare. We lost water to our house – the neighbours had cut through the pipe, and our boat became untied from our mooring on the Thames – when a storm caused the mooring to come apart. Our 20 tonne, 60 foot long, iron dutch barge was at 90 degrees to the Thames – hanging on with the tiniest rope and I had to pull it in – all 20 tonnes of it. It wasn’t pleasant at all. Very very scary – who knows what would have happened if the other rope would have given way.

Anyway – we got away with it – and we live to cook another dish !

Puy Lentil, Brown Rice and Sweet Potato Salad

Posted on April 27, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

I think I’ve just made the best thing I’ve ever eaten – and apparently it’s incredibly good for you too.

This recipe comes from ‘Honestly Healthy for Life’ by Natasha Corrett and Vicki Edgson. This was my birthday present from Freya (the book not the meal) – and I’m really chuffed with it.

There are so many textures and flavours going on in this recipe. Brown rice and puy lentils, sweet potatoes, edamame beans, cashews, pumpkin seeds, spring onions and dill – hmm its just so yummy – and I know I’ll make this regularly. If I had a top 5 this would be in it.

The pumpkin seeds are especially interesting as they are roasted with tamari (soy sauce) and they end up with a lovely intense flavour that really contrasts with everything else.

There is also a dressing of sunflower oil, parsley, lemon and salt which keeps it all nice and moist and gives a nice citrus tang. The dill also really features well.

You really have to make this dish – we had it warm – but only because time was getting on and I was hungry and impatient for it to cool down. We only ate half so no doubt this will be lunch for tomorrow – and I can’t imagine it being any less awesome cold!

The ‘Perfect’ Omelette

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I always raise my eyebrows to recipes that say – the perfect this or the best that. You are already setting yourself up for disappointment – because invariably they aren’t perfect or the best.

And what does perfect mean? Is it the author’s perfect omelette? Perfect to me means flipped on both sides rather than folded – and with cheese and chilli. For the author I imagine it means this is the perfectly balanced and healthy omelette to have for breakfast to start the day given that this omelette comes courtesy of Honestly Healthy for Life.

It’s very simple and very very tasty.

We’re usually very lax at breakfast time and either don’t bother having any – or grab a slice of toast at work. But we’ve noticed we don’t feel great when we snack on bread so we thought we’d try this instead.

It’s not obvious from the picture – but this is a two egg omelette which had quite a bit of parsley chopped into the egg. While it is frying in the pan you add some chopped tomato and mushroom (which you’ve previously cooked for a few minutes). You put the filling on one side of the omelette then top with fresh spinach and red chilli (if you want), then fold, cook for a short while and then flip.

You think the spinach won’t fit inside the omelette – and it doesn’t to start with – but it soon wilts – and when you fold it it all fits in nicely.

I thought my perfect omelette was a three egg, mint, pea and feta omelette – but this one really does come close. It was fantastic. And it is clearly more healthy than the one I usually make!

Herby Omelette Thingies

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Funny name for this granted – its kind of an omelette, kind of a frittata.

I knocked this up on Monday when Freya said she was hungry and it was way too late to eat. The cupboards were pretty bare but I knew I had the ingredients for this and it was very quick and easy to make.

I’m not convinced the recipe in the book is the smartest way to make this. Basically, you fry some herbs in butter/oil and after a short while you pour a batter of eggs, flour and baking powder over the top and cook on low for 10 mins until the eggs set.

The problem with this is the herbs will burn. They get trapped under the eggs – get all the direct heat and lose all their flavour and don’t look at all appetising. The herbs lost a lot of their flavour too.

The picture I’ve taken with this was my take on the same dish. I can’t see the point of frying fresh herbs – so I make the recipe differently as follows:

Crack 3 eggs into a Magimix
Chop a bunch of mint into a Magimix
Add a cup of frozen peas into a Magimix
Add 10ml Plain flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder to a Magimix
Season
Turn on the Magimix for 5 seconds
Pour the omelette mixture into a medium heated pan
Cook on a low heat for 10 mins
Either flip it and cook for a couple of minutes more – or slide under a grill
Serve

That was a much better solution as the herbs retained their flavour and nothing looked burnt.

For added awesomeness – add cubes feta cheese – that really does make an awesome snack.

Tomato, Fennel and Arak Soup

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Gee it seems like ages since I made anything. But it has only been a couple of days.

We’ve been under a lot of pressure to get the boat finished and have basically been eating shop bought dips and cheese and bread for 5 days while we put in lots of hours sanding and painting – desperately trying to get it finished before we move it next Saturday.

That said – there were some ingredients in the fridge that needed using up – and there were still three recipes left to make from Veggiestan – so I made this.

Just in case you’re wondering, Arak is an anise-flavored distilled alcoholic beverage traditional to Lebanon, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. Ouzo, Pernod, Rakir are acceptable substitutes. I have Rakir and Pernod – but for my soup I used Pernod as I figured it had more of an aniseed taste.

I don’t usually make soups – especially when the weather in the UK has been pretty good and salad inducing. I leave soups to my mother-in-law. She has a Thermomix (which I bought her a year ago) and this makes amazing soup with next to no mess – so generally soups are left to her. This one caught my eye simply because it contained alcohol.

It’s trivial to make this. Chop some red peppers, fennel, tomatoes, onions, garlic and soften. Add some stock, spices and alcohol and simmer until it’s done.

This is really chunky and really tasty. Fennel is an amazing vegetable and people just don’t use it enough. I stirred in some creme fraiche at the end and I think it spoiled it a bit – so the second bowl I left it out and it was much better.

The ingredients for this recipe are often left over after a weeks cooking – so I think I’d probably contemplate making this each time – it took less than an hour – and I imagine it’ll keep quite well. It might even be good cold as a kind of Gazpacho.

Cheese-Baked Egg-Stuffed Tomatoes

Posted on April 10, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This very simple recipe takes very little preparation at all – as long as your tomatoes are ripe. Hollowing out unripe tomatoes isn’t the best of fun – especially those really big ones that you need for this dish.

It’s a shame I invested the time in making these. I made these over the road at my mother-in-laws to keep her company and completely forgot that I’d left half a kilo of Fava Beans simmering in a pan in our cottage. Suffice to say they got a bit burnt once the water had all boiled away! Oh well! They look ok – maybe they’ll be ok – we shall see!

Anyway – back to the tomatoes. Once your tomatoes are hollowed you chop the contents of the tomato and add to some cooked onions. After spooning a little of this mixture back in the tomato you crack in an egg and top with grated cheese. The remaining mixture is spooned over some toasted pita breads – put the egg filled tomatoes on top and cook in the oven until the egg is firm.

This isn’t the most elegant of dishes and if I’m honest I’d probably change a few things. There needs to be more flavour somewhere – maybe with some fresh thyme or basil in the tomato mix, not sure yet. Also I’d drain off as much of the juice from the tomato filling as it was a bit too wet when you cut into it. Or you could reduce the liquid from the tomato juice to make the flavours more intense.

That said it was ok – and easy. Having the tomato on a bed of pita bread made the dish more complete. It would probably look quite fancy alongside some sausage and bacon in an all day breakfast! If you ate meat that was!

Maybe I’ve just gotten used to making something slightly more zingy and tasty and different. There are better dishes than this in Veggiestan. There are worse too – remember the fried eggs and dates!

Afghan Leek Pies

Posted on April 9, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

I don’t usually make this sort of thing as I’m not a big fan of shallow frying things in lots of oil. They just can’t be healthy. That said they caught my eye so I thought I’d give them a go.

These are pretty simple to prepare – but take quite some time to fry. I think the proportions are all off in the recipe too as I have over half the filling left over after using up all the pastry!

This is basically a flour, salt and water dough – cut into thin circles (I used a cocktail shaker which had a handy 9cm diameter !) and filled with a mixture of mashed potato, leeks and spices.

The recipe says you’ll make 20 but I made nearly 40!

They are quite nice and we tried them with an assortment of dips from Creme Fraiche to Ketchup to Garlic Jam (from the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm). I think keeping it simple with something like yoghurt or creme fraiche is best. Ketchup overpowered them even though they were quite spicy.

There is clearly a lot you could change here – any filling would probably work as long as it was quite solid.

It wasn’t the best choice of dinner as these are really better placed in a buffet or in the middle of the table in a meeting at work (that’s where the 30 left over ones are going). Eating five each was enough – and we usually eat much lighter food than this.

That said – if these were in front of you and you were distracted with a good film – or like we were with the first episode of Season 4 of Game of Thrones – then you might just munch your way through all of them without realising it.

I had another one of these before going to bed (just like Nigella might) and they weren’t as crisp as they were when they were freshly fried – but the recipe does say they keep well – so we’ll see tomorrow.

Roasted Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes with a Caper Vinagrette

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We were in a rush to cook something quickly before going Rock’n’Roll dancing and I realised when we got home that I was pretty much one ingredient short on almost all the recipes I wanted to make.

Fortunately I had all the ingredients for this – Roasted Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes.

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to make it – so I had a choice – go dancing and not eat – or eat and not go dancing. Dancing won the day ! And it’s good we went everything seemed to fall into place and we started getting the moves right. Superwoman’s, flat hand pushes, and ‘the ladies rest’ all seemed to come together beautifully. Happy days. Now we have three moves – the sky’s the limit!

We got home around 11pm and I resumed the cooking – and finished it this morning – so we’re having it for lunch today.

Essentially you roast some parsnips, red onions and sweet potatoes in garlic, rosemary and thyme and towards the end throw in some cherry tomatoes. After a 90 minutes roast (from start to finish) you dress the roasted vegetables in lemon juice, olive oil and capers. It’s very easy – just takes time in the oven. Even the prep is easy as you don’t even need to peel the vegetables!

If you were a roast dinners kind of person this would be a very nice twist on some otherwise plainly roasted vegetables. I think it is a great dish in its own right – the lemon juice and capers really brings a whole new flavour to the vegetables.

You really can’t go wrong with Ottolenghi.

Pomegranate and Cucumber Salsa

Posted on April 7, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Another late dinner for us. – way past 9pm. And there was a choice. More Mung Bean Casserole (see previous post) or something else. Something else won the coin toss.

This is another dish from Veggiestan by Sally Butcher.

Once I’ve made more than half a dozen things from a book and liked them I can safely recommend the book. Apart from the shocker that was Figs and Fried Eggs, everything else has been awesome – and there’s still half a dozen things I haven’t made yet.

The keen eyes amongst you will realise as I did that this dish could have been called anything – there are a lot of ingredients in this dish other than the two in the title. Pretty much every ingredient in this dish is in equal proportion. Pomegranate, cucumber, tomato, peppers, spring onions, mint, coriander – lots of very fresh ingredients. There is also a hot chilli pepper to give it some kick. I added a Scotch Bonnet. There’s even more zinginess from the juice of some limes.

This recipe is in the Meze section of the book and is supposed to be part of many other dishes. We had it on its own as it was getting late and I realised I had missing ingredients for the other things I wanted to make. It is very enjoyable on its own anyway.

I never feel bad eating salad late at night – it’s hardly going to pile on the pounds. In any case we can dance it off tomorrow night when we go Rock’n’Roll dancing!

Mung Bean Casserole

Posted on April 7, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

There are some days when you just can’t be bothered. Today is one of those days.

In fairness the reason I can’t be bothered is I took the day off work to sand and paint the outside of our boat and it has been raining since yesterday evening. You can’t really sand in the rain. Electricity and water don’t mix particularly well. Even if it stops raining, the sanding disks just clog up with damp paint so it’s a fruitless task.

So. Eleven I clock came round and I figured I should make something for lunch and just hope that the rain goes away. I wanted something warm – salad wouldn’t cut it this time.

The mung beans I ordered from souschef.co.uk arrived at the weekend so this seemed like the most appropriate Winter warmer to make for such a wet day.

This is a one pot affair. Just make sure you have a big one. A lot goes into the pot.

After frying off the vegetables and spices and chillis, you add the mung beans, potatoes and capsicum peppers and simmer until the beans are done. You then add an inconceivable amount of spinach, tomatoes and lime juice and it’s done.

It’s pretty easy and it tastes so good.

It makes ever such a lot. I reckon we will be eating this for a while. It has a lovely warming flavour but it isn’t spicy even if it does have a Scotch Bonnet chilli within.

This is the best thing I’ve made from Veggiestan so far. I really like thing kind of ‘curry’. It’s not really a curry but it could easily pass one.

The recipe suggests you might want to eat it with rice but I can’t see why you’d want to have it with anything. It’s a meal all by itself.

Well it seems to have stopped raining so off I go to the boat!