Spinach Pearl Barley Risotto

Posted on May 6, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Seems like Monday was a day for all things green.

Green Love Green Smoothie
We painted the hull of our boat Green (we thought it was blue but seems it’s green)
We had Spinach Pearl Barley Risotto for dinner

That was a lot of spinach to have in one day – but at least we’ve not done our usual ‘throw a bag of spinach away because we bought too much’.

This is one of the best risottos I’ve ever eaten. And it isn’t even made with rice.

Don’t let the green put you off. Green stuff (as I mentioned for the smoothie) always looks bit weird – especially when it is as vibrant as this green!

The recipe is pretty basic – as are all the recipes in Honestly Healthy for Life. Saute some red onions and garlic, add the pearl barley, add some bouillon, cook like a risotto – and at the end add the pureed spinach, some lemon juice and zest. Dead easy.

I found it pretty hard to puree spinach leave in a Vitamix so I added some of the bouillon to get it going – after that it was all plain sailing.

The flavours in this dish are so simple and all come together beautifully. Spinach, garlic and lemon are always amazing in a salad – and they flavours transfer beautifully into this risotto.

This took less that 40 minutes to make and was awesome. This is a definite keeper and probably now means I’ll never throw a bag of spinach away ever again. I usually have all the other ingredients knocking about anyway – so this will probably end up being one of my emergency dinners.

The book suggests that you can substitute the spinach for beetroot. I imagine you could substitute any pureeable (I know that’s not a word) vegetable that has lots of flavour. Maybe I’ll try that later in the week ( I have a few raw beetroot in the fridge).

I seem to have been cooking from this books forever; but it’s only been 10 days. I’ve only one recipe left to try from my shortlist – which contains pomegranate and sweetcorn. After that I’ll move on to something else.

The coming week I think I’ll be cooking from Ottolenghi’s books!

Green Smoothie – Green Love

Posted on May 5, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

According to Honestly Healthy for Life ‘there is no better way to start the day than with an alkalising green smoothie’. I beg to differ – I can name several things; who doesn’t like a brew in the morning!

There’s something weird about drinking green stuff. Especially when that green stuff is spinach and parsley. In fairness it is also blended with mango, an apple, chia seeds and coconut water.

It’s very thick. I think it weirded Freya out – especially when I took a big gulp and it all got stuck in my beard and moustache! I guess you could add more coconut water to make it thinner!

You can certainly taste the parsley, and smell it.

I’ve already drunk mine and am on a second glass. It’s supposed to keep your blood sugar levels up – which is good to know!

There are four variations of smoothie in the book, five if you include swapping out the spinach in our one for kale. This one was called ‘Green Love’. They are all quite different. If I ever make them I’ll be sure to review them.

We think that a blob of creme fraiche, some parsley on top, ladled into a bowl, would make a lovely cold soup starter for a nice summer’s day dinner. Or to keep it vegan you could put a garlic and tahini dressing on top. Who knows!

We’re off to the boat today to get some finishing touches applied to a ‘fast approaching finished’ boat.

The sun is out, there’s no wind. There’s no chance of rain. The day is looking good. What’s more, my dizziness has gone so I can get back to normal and stop worrying about having a terminal illness. With all that spinach drink – third glass now – I’m sure to adopt some Popeye super powers in the next few hours.

Olive!

Celeriac and Orange Soup

Posted on May 4, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

When you’re poorly, like I was, there’s nothing better to have to eat than soup. Chances are you’ll keep it down!

This soup is delicious. Not sure why its called Celeriac and Orange soup. I’d have called it Celeriac and Fennel Soup. The orange it really only zested over the top!

After roasting some fennel, you add it to chopped celeriac and cook until tender. Then you add some coconut milk and umeboshi plum puree. Then you puree the whole mixture in a blender until smooth.

The zesting of an orange over the top really makes this special. It really adds another layer of flavour to the soup.

If I’m honest I couldn’t really pick out the celeriac or the fennel in the soup. I could really taste the umeboshi plum puree – which is tart and tangy. Maybe we were a little heavy handed with it.

I’ve been eating this for two days now and really like it. It’s good hot or cold. It’s lovely and thick and I’ll definitely be making it again.

I’m looking forward to doing some cooking tomorrow and some proper blogging. I’ve missed it the last couple of days!

Roasted Tomato and Spinach Tart

Posted on May 4, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This is one tasty tart, again taken from Honestly Healthy for Life.

We didn’t have a very nice pie dish so Freya improvised.

The crust of this tart is no more than some ground almonds, pumpkin and caraway seeds, herbs, seasoning and sunflower oil. It didn’t really maintain it’s integrity when you cut the tart. It looked pretty though. I think you could just as easily use the base as a ‘crumble’ topping and turn this into a pie – but I think it looks best this way.

The tart filling is tomatoes, spinach leaves and goats cheese. You’re supposed to quarter the tomatoes but we left them whole. The tomatoes could probably have done with some slow roasting the sweeten them up – but it was certainly yummy anyway.

It’s a delicious tart. I think I just have to work on making the crust more solid.

I didn’t get to eat it on the day it was made as I was poorly, but it tasted wonderful when I got to eat it the next day.

Chia Seed Porridge with Kuzu and Berry Compote

Posted on May 4, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This is an odd one for breakfast, taken from Honestly Healthy for Life.

Chia seeds are tasteless seeds – and all you do is soak then in milk – we used Almond Milk and Hazelnut Milk – and a half teaspoon of cinnamon.

This has a completely different texture to an oat based porridge, but you do have to soak the seeds for some time. It says 30 minutes in the recipe – but I’d say a couple of hours might be better. That’s what we did.

The texture is a bit frog-spawny. Freya didn’t like it. I thought it wasn’t too bad.

The compote went really well with the porridge. There was also a sprinkling of almonds.

The compote is made up of raspberries, blackberries, agave syrup, vanilla extract and kuzu. The ingredients are boiled up and simmered and that’s pretty much all you have to do.

Kuzu is one of my ‘special’ ingredients. It’s a gluten free starch made from the kuzu root, which is used for thickening.

Unless we can’t find another use for the Chia Seeds we have I imagine we won’t be making this again. Although it is supposed to be really good for you, it’s relatively tasteless.

Raw Green Curry with Courgette Noodles

Posted on May 1, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Been wanting to make this one all week!

You really need a high speed blender to make this one. Otherwise you’re not going to be able to make the sauce smooth enough. I already tried with my Magimix and it was way too lumpy (something I also found with the Hot Chocolate). Magimix’s aren’t made for pureeing nuts! Fortunately Freya’s mum had a Vitamix I could borrow – so I went and did that.

To my delight she also had a birthday present for me. A voucher to eat at ‘Terre a Terre‘ in Brighton. Allegedly the best vegetarian restaurant in the UK. Freya has been wanting to eat there for quite some time – so I wonder where that idea came from !

You’ll also need a Spiraliser. Essentially a spiraliser makes spirals out of vegetables. I’ve got a cheap one that I bought from Amazon – which was apparently essential for making anything from the cookery book ‘Raw’ – which I have yet to make anything from.

I supposed you could julienne the courgettes but then they wouldn’t look like noodles. Obviously it would still taste the same!

Anyway – back to the recipe. You blitz cashews, coriander, fresh curry leaves, garlic, red chilli, lime juice, ginger and coconut milk (and some other herbs and spices) until you get a smooth paste. It goes a lovely avocado green colour.

You add this paste to your spiralised courgettes, beansprouts, mange tout, sugar snap peas, baby sweetcorn and sliced red peppers, mix it all together and serve it with a few cashews on top for decoration.

This dish is incredibly tasty. And crunchy. And fresh. And very very mild. Barely a curry at all.

You’d be convinced there were avocados in there too – but I think that’s just the mind tricking you because of the colour of the sauce.

I think if I were making this again I’d want to make it more spicy. This is certainly the mildest curry I’ve every eaten. Maybe more ginger or more red chilli would have done the trick.

It did feel like something was lacking. I just don’t know what it was. I loved it though. I’ve just been spoiled by the Honestly Healthy for Life book this week – from which this recipe is taken.

Raw Hemp Granola Bars

Posted on May 1, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

One thing Freya and I are very bad at is snacking. If we are going to the boat for a few hours we’ll always pop into a shop and come out with cookies, crisps and other bad things that we really shouldn’t be eating. More often than not we buy cheese and bread – even worse. I blame the supermarkets – they never have anything wholesome and healthy for you to grab. In fairness if we were to plan a bit better we’d always have something to take with us – but we never do.

Anyway – in light of me struggling to keep any food down at the moment – I thought I’d knock up some healthy bite sized snacks.

Honestly Healthy for Life has a number of snacks, the first one I’ve chosen is the Raw Hemp Granola Bars.

These are really easy to make. There’s no cooking (obviously – it says raw) – but you will need a blender to blitz everything together.

These bars contain coconut oil, rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds and dates. Mine contained some figs too because I’d run out of dates and made the volume up with something similar. Annoyingly I needed the figs for another dish but that will now have to wait !

These taste amazing – a squidgier version of the Granola that I made earlier in the week. I’ll certainly be knocking up batches of these each week instead of being naughty with the Waitrose Chocolate Chip Cookies. That said – the recipe says it makes 12 – I’ve probably made 30. And they only keep for a week – so just bear in mind you’ll be eating a lot of them – or generously giving them away.

They might even do for our weekly team meetings at work – cake isn’t good for you guys !

Quinoa, Lemon Kale and Sesame Beetroot Salad

Posted on May 1, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This is another offering from Honestly Healthy for Life. Freya made this one as I was feeling poorly and she insisted I sit down and rest while she did the cooking.

I really can’t go on about Quinoa enough. It’s so versatile and takes on the flavours of any liquid you cook it in. This recipe is no exception. Most of the dishes in this book cook the quinoa in bouillon.

We eat a lot of roasted beetroot – so I was glad to see a few beetroot dishes in the Honestly Healthy book.

The dish contains beetroot, kale, broccoli tips, leeks, lemons and onion – and of course quinoa.

Kale is amazingly dark and is apparently also a superfood – so I guess I’ll always be substituting it for greens or cabbage in future dishes. There’s a whole array of nutrients in kale – but I won’t bore you with that.

It’s supposed to have some bee pollen on it – but mine has mysteriously gone missing from my Amazon delivery – so it ended up being a vegan dish. It was also supposed to have mint but we seemed to have run out.

When you eat it there are an explosion of flavours and textures in your mouth. The kale and the broccoli is still crunchy, the beetroots are rich and there is a lovely citrus lemon running through it too. It also has a vinegary sour taste that comes from the mirin and the brown rice vinegar. It all comes together beautifully.

This dish is a definite keeper. I’ll be making this regularly. It keeps well too – I had some leftovers today (cold) and it was still as yummy as last night – although the kale and broccoli had gone a bit soft. You could probably keep the dressing separate to the dry ingredients and throw them together at the last minute if you want it for work lunch the next day.

Roasted Aubergine and Mango Salsa with Black Rice Noodles

Posted on April 29, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Apart from the vibrant contrast in colours, this dish is amazing. It has a wonderful array of textures and flavours; roasted red onions and aubergines, chopped coriander, mango and lemon zest – and then those wonderful noodles.

Black rice noodles look amazing don’t they. Amazingly purple. They taste amazing too. They aren’t readily accessible in supermarkets – I ordered mine from Amazon and they weren’t that expensive as long as you buy in bulk.

Black rice noodles are rich in minerals such as manganese, calcium and zinc. They are also high in fibre. They only took 5 minutes on a rolling boil and they were done. They just need rinsing and refreshing in cold water as the water gets rather gloopy.

I was initially disappointed that my mango was too firm and not very juicy – but as it turned out to add an extra crunchy texture to the dish. A ripe mango might have changed this dish completely; as I will find out next time I make it.

Also, I used baby aubergines rather than regular ones, and I think the bigger ones would have roasted up better. There was too much skin on the baby aubergines and the skin is much tarter than the flesh in my opinion. Again I’ll try changing that next time I make it.

This dish was drizzled with a Tahina dressing – which was a simple blend of tahini, tamari, garlic, coriander and sesame oil. It added a very nice twang to an already amazing dish.

I put this together in less than 30 minutes – so it’s quick and easy. Just as well given I only started making it at 9pm – having spent all day at the boat – making a wardrobe from scratch. Got to put those clothes somewhere.

Wild Mushroom Quinoa ‘Risotto’

Posted on April 29, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Here’s an interesting ‘risotto’ from Honesty Healthy.

Essentially the risotto rice is replaced with Quinoa – but the principle of making it is the same.

Quinoa is an amazing ingredient. Most people think it is a grain – but its actually a seed. It is packed with protein and omega-3 so it makes so much sense to substitute it for rice whenever you can.

This risotto is pretty sparse on ingredients – apart from the quinoa and stock, you only add mushrooms and goats cheese. And when you are ready to serve you pour over a parsley butter – that’s it!

I was a little disappointed with how mine turned out as I couldn’t really taste the goats cheese that you add at the end – and my mushrooms were tiny – so the dish didn’t look as impressive as I would have liked.

I do think the quinoa probably needed cooking a bit longer that I did – to make it more gloopy and soft. Some of the quinoa was a bit firm and something in the dish was gritty – maybe it was in the mushrooms – I’m not sure.

That said – it was very tasty. It tasted like a genuine risotto – not just a poor imitation. The parsley butter was essential; it lifted the dish and made everything more tasty.

I’ll definitely make it again – just with some nicer wild mushrooms and maybe a tastier goats cheese.