Posts Tagged With: healthy

Raw Vegan Lasagne with Avocado and Lemon Ricotta (Gluten-free)

Posted on August 15, 2013 by leroy watson

Raw Lasagne with Avocado and Lemon Ricotta (Vegan/ Gluten Free)

Raw Vegan Lasagne with Avocado Lemon Ricotta, Red Bean and Walnut with Tomato and Basil Sauce (Vegan/ Gluten Free)

This is one of those dishes that really stands out. A dish that just makes perfect sense and falls into place perfectly on the plate and palate. All those yummy layers, one on top of another.

Meat eaters beware! This is a ‘converter’, one fork-full and you’ll join the lighter side. A dish that dis spells the ludicrous myths that vegetarians are merely ‘rabbit food’ munchers.

We have found vegan raw food presents a simple equation:

Raw Vegan Food = Shiny and Zinging Life of the Highest Order + Awesome, Creative New Flavours and Combinations

Granted its not the simplest of equations, but its a fine one non-the-less! This dish is full, full, full of delicious flavour, nutrition and vegetarian protein power (see top 5 veggie sources of protein here).

Jane was typing whilst I made this and here is what I said about it, hot off the press:

“So good for you and tasty, I can see this stuff really catching on! I see this as the future of food. Its a simple as that. Pasta without the carbs, supercharged full of colour and nutrition, all the flavours of Italy. Fascinating combination of flavours only ever seen in vegan cooking, using all whole foods, nothing jarred – this is what we are going for in the BHK.”

Reading this back again, I completely agree with what my former self uttered. This is the future of cooking (and non-cooking). We all want the best for ourselves and raw vegan food gives us just that. This is a trend that is actually positive for mind and body. Can you imagine how much the National Health Service would save if we all decided to eat vegan raw food, or incorporate more of it into our diets. We’d all live to 150 and hardly ever darken the door of a hospital or doctor. We believe that nutrition and the food we eat is that important. Call it preventative medicine if you will, but taking care of yourself and eating amazing food doesn’t sound like too bad a deal. No compromise on taste either, just look at this wonder plate!

Semi-rant over for now, back to the recipe. Its not totally raw this one, but could be very easily. Because Raw Earth Month has now officially ended (yes we are using the odd light at night and the occasional square of chocolate is disappearing from the cupboard) cooked beans have re-entered our diets. How I missed them. I love a bean. Without even thinking, I added red kidney beans to the ‘meat’ layer of our lasagne. They are perfect colour wise and they add a great texture. I also love them with walnuts, no idea why?

We are lucky to have a raft of inspirational friends and the original idea for this lasagne comes from the sparkling Sava over at Travel Butterfly. Sava is a constant source of inspiration on many levels for us at the Beach House and some of her vegan/ raw recipes really hit the wonder mark.

This lasagne, and lasagne in general, has a few components to sort, it takes a little time. Its well worth it though and would definitely be classed as a special occasion dish. This dish has the whiff of wow factor about it, one that looks almost as good as it tastes (after all, food that looks better than it tastes is such a let down). I am always interested to find that most people who don’t cook much still know how to make a decent lasagne. Its quite a tricky and time consuming thing to get together, especially the art of a non-lumpy bechamel. I generally think people are alot better at cooking than they claim to be!

Raw Vegan Lasagne

Good tomatoes here are essential. We had some in our veg box this week and they blew us away, when I tried the sauce, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t added a sweetener to it. That’s it reaction you need! Gorgeous tomatoes are hard to find. Some tomatoes just need a little love, leave them in a bowl, ripen them just like a fruit and sometimes they come good, at the very least, they will get better. A chilled tomato is just no good. There is a soup we made a little like this, found here.

If you are completely raw, we’d probably substitute the beans with more seeds and nuts. Maybe a little dried apricot to bind things together. I am sure you have your own ideas, as being a raw vegan really pushes your creativity to the limits. We know how it is.

We use amino acids of tamari here because most soya sauce is just no good. Soya is a funny thing and unless processed properly, can be of detriment to the body. Tamari and something like Braggs Liquid Amino Acids are perfect replacements and tamari especially, even tastes finer.

We top this all off with some Nutritional Yeast Flakes. I know we all don’t have them in the cupboard, but they are brilliant little flakes to add an almost cheesiness to dishes. They have a unique savoury taste that must be tried to appreciate and are a vegan lifesaver. For me, they are little like a vegan parmesan. That intense!

A few other raw recipes that may tickle your tastebuds:

Black Prince Tomato and Coriander Soup

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing

Raw Coconut and Lime Cheesecake

Hazelnut and Lentil Hummus

Now, lets non-cook!

The Bits

Tomato and Basil Sauce
3 cups plum cherry toms, 1 cup soaked sundried toms (finely chopped) with ¼ cup of oil from the jar), 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 clove crushed garlic (crushed)

Bean and Walnut Layer
250g red kidney beans (cooked) or 1 tin-ish, 1 cup of walnuts, ½ cup of pumpkin seeds (add bite), 2 x teaspoon Braggs Liquid Aminos (or tamari), Pinch of salt and pepper

Pasta Layers
1 gold courgette, 1 green courgette (or two green is fine)
Cut in half width-ways and finely sliced into layers

Avocado and Lemon Ricotta
1 ripe avocado (must be ripe), 250g firm tofu (drained well, save a few thin slices for the topping), 2 tbls olive oil, ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes, 1 small clove garlic (crushed), ½ lemon juice and zest, pinch of salt

Topping
Thinly sliced tofu, olives (finely chopped), sprinkled with Nutritional Yeast Flakes

Do It

This raw game is an easy one. Just whack it in the food processor and voila! Gorgeous Lasagne.

Tomato and Basil Sauce – Pop all in a FP and whizz until smooth. Set aside and clean blender.

Bean Walnut Layer – Pop all in a FP and blitz until smooth but with lots of chunks (similar to mince I guess). Set aside and clean blender.

Avocado and Lemon Ricotta – Pop all in a FP, blend until smooth. Set aside.

Pop all in the fridge for an hour to chill and thicken up a little before the layering.

Raw Lasgane ready for stacking

Make sure that you slice you courgette/ zucchini carefully. You want them to be almost as thin as pasta sheets. A mandolin is perfect for this, but a big beware here! They love to slice fingers also.

Now to layer the beast.

On your chosen serving plate (a square one would be perfect), lay out your first layer of courgette. Depending on your chopping skills, you may need to put two layers of courgette (if wafer thin style). Carefully spread on your bean and walnut layer and a thin layer of the tomato and basil sauce.

Next, add another layer of courgette, slightly smaller in diameter than the first, pressing down gently to make the layer stick. This is mainly a presentation thing, you can see the layers better when they are not overhanging each other. Once the layer is neatly placed, spread on your vegan ricotta.

First layer underway

The final layer, once more press down gently and arrange a nicely overlapping mosaic of your wonderfully sliced courgette, top with a layer of tofu (which can’t help but look a little like mozzarella), a good layer of tomato and basil sauce, sprinkle on your chopped olives and a good sprinkle of yeast flakes. Top with some basil that you will no doubt have hanging around your glorious kitchen.

That’s it! As simple or as difficult as you make it! We think its medium in the ‘fiddle scale’.

Raw Vegan Lasagne with Avocado and Lemon Ricotta – A taste explosion waiting to happen.

Serve

Immediately. The salt will gradually release liquids in the lasagne, which are very tasty, but don’t look the best. This lasagne can be sliced as usual and the layers will stay intact and look amazing.

We Love It!

A dish in the locker that will impress friends and family for many years and make us look very clever indeed when actually its leisurely walk in the park.

The flavours mingle and merge in some form of Italian perfection and you will be amazed at the reaction from meat-eaters. Try it! They love it too!

Foodie Fact

Courgette (zucchini to some) is a summer squash, they are said to have originated in Mexico and come in all shapes and sizes. Courgettes are very low in calories and have no cholesterol or fat, the peel is full of dietary fibre and it is also a good source of vitamin A and has high levels of heart friendly potassium.

Jane's been making dollies out of wheat again. This is Trevor.

Jane’s been making dollies out of wheat again. This is Wild Johnny.

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Special Occasion, Vegan | Tags: avocado, food, gluten-free, healthy, lasagne, nutritional yeast flakes, ricotta, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian protein | 7 Comments

Sprouted Buckwheat, Onion and Miso Crackers (Raw)

Posted on July 6, 2013 by leroy watson

Sprouted Buckwheat, Onion and Miso Crackers (Raw)

What a thing! What a wonderful thing! RAW CRACKERS have arrived with a crunch at the BHK! We managed to pick up a dehydrator for half price which has inspired us to play with many ingredients in new ways, generally making them all crispy.

This crispiness is something you can miss when you go full-on raw (I believe it is known as mouth feel in some circles, but that sounds too technical for a humble cracker), the odd bit of toast, bread, crackers, oat cakes, you know the drill. You fancy something to balance the crunch and zest of all the magic veggies and fruits you’re eating. This is where the raw cracker comes into its own and this one boast not only dried onions (massive flavour here) but also brown miso for a cracker that tastes as stunning and moreish as anything dusted with chemicals and the like.

These buckwheat crackers were a real surprise, we had no idea they’d taste so dang good! The only issue is not eating them all at once and they do take a good 12 hours to dehydrate. Dehydrating is a great lesson in being prepared and most importantly patient. You can’t rush the process, but the end result is normally more than worth the wait. It’s best to dehydrate over night and then you just forget about whats going on until you wander down in the morning and find some crispy wonders awaiting you.

The dehydrator also makes soothing buzzing noise and warms a room quite nicely, just a couple of add- on benefits. It actually sounds like your on a plane when you sit beside it, that gently humming and whistling, you can close your eyes and imagine your off to somewhere exotic to behave in wonderful ways.

Buckwheat is one of those things that we don’t eat enough of, we have to go to the health shop to get our hands on it. When we have it around we love having a play with it using it as a substitute for grains in salads and stews.

Buckwheat is actually a berry (along the lines of quinoa) and has nothing to do with wheat etc, so its gluten free and great for the body/ digestion. Buckwheat flour is also perfect for a full flavoured, dense pancake or flatbread. We love wheat, but it generally doesn’t love us. When you start giving things up on a raw diet, you really get to know your digestive system in a new way (promise not to get too graphic here!). You also realise how much strain you have been putting it under and wheat/ gluten for us is a real drag on the belly and below. Still, the smell of toast is something quite special and we’ll always nibble our way through a couple of slices. It’s a pleasure-pain thing and the pleasure is well worth the gurgling insides.

There is something about miso that is quite special also, it’s got that healthy bacteria thing going on and just feels very, very right. It is high in sodium, but it is used by the body in a different way to plain old salt. Japanese people eat alot of it and Japanese people live for a long, long time and have significantly less disease than us Western varieties. It could be the miso!?

We used slightly oiled baking parchment to dry these babies out, it works quite well, but in proper dehydrating circles, you’d use a special non-stick tray. If you are gentle with a spatula, you should be able to get them off in one piece-ish.

Makes eight medium sized crackers.

The Bits

300g sprouted buckwheat, 1 1/2 tbsp brown miso (use more if you are using white or yellow miso), 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp fresh parsley (we didn’t have any), 1/4 onion (finely sliced), 2 tbsp boiling water, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, 1 tbsp sunflower/ pumpkin seeds (optional)

Do It

Blend all together to a thick, spreadable paste. You’ve got to love this raw food prep, its a blend-fest, but oh so simple.

Just add……avocado?

Serve

We like ours with a crunchy salad, the contrast of textures is something to behold and its raw, and all the nutrients are there AND its superbly healthy. How about lathered in avocado!!!!! Its one of those raw/ vegan food no lose situations that we coming to love in the BHK.

We Love It!

Full of nutrition and raw crunch, we can’t wait to get started on a new batch. Flax and sprouted oat next up….

Foodie Fact

Buckwheat is a berry related to rhubarb and sorrel, it helps to slow down the absorption of glucose after a meal making it good for diabetics. It contains all of your amino acids, not produced by the body and also contains lysine and many minerals which are great for the immune system.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Snacks and Inbetweens, Vegan | Tags: buckwheat, crackers, dehydrating, dehydrator, food, healthy, miso, raw, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Asparagus, Lemon & Pesto Pizza

Posted on May 3, 2013 by leroy watson

I love May, full of birthdays (my sister and I’s) and the green spears of asparagus decide to make a brief appearance. Surely one of the finest vegetables with a flavour like no other.

I’ve always found asparagus season intriguing, it’s so short and makes the availability of British asparagus so appealing. You are forced to save up all of your asparagus recipes for this one little window of the year and then POW! Asparagus begins to appear on everything. So to celebrate this asparagus-fest, we popped ours on a pizza, there is something special about the flavours of asparagus that lends it to Italian cuisine.

It’s not often that we get a pizza on the roll, the original idea for asparagus on pizza came from a lovely blog friend Margaret over at Pachamama’s Beautiful Food. If you haven’t been over to this wonderful oasis of food and nature, we highly recommend a visit. Margaret is sure to brighten up your day!

The ingredients here are pan roasted off in a little balsamic before topping the dough, adding a nice sweet/ sharp tang. This pizza also comes with an oil that packs even more flavour onto this already heavy-laden crust. We’d serve it in a bowl separately and let people help themselves.

Pesto we had left over and thought it sounded like a right good idea, this does make it a very rich affair, but adds a tonne of flavour. The pesto we used was your standard green pesto, plenty of parmesan and basil. A regular tomato sauce would also be wonderful here. Lemon zest is also a brilliant addition and really shines through here, not something you see often on a pizza.

GREEN SPEARS

Asparagus is one of the oldest recorded vegetables and is said to originate from the Mediterranean, it was much revered by the Greeks and Romans (and still is!) Asparagus is related to the onion and garlic, also the daffodil and tulip. Asparagus is one of those strange vegetables that actually take up more calories to digest, than they offer the body, making it a negative-calorie vegetable (celery is another). A celery and asparagus could just be the ultimate ‘diet’ salad.

Asparagus must be served as fresh as possible, if not the sugars present turn to starch and it loses flavour. Asparagus is best harvested early in the morning and kept in the fridge in a plastic bag, this will keep them tender and conserve the vitamins present.

Normally I’m a brown flour chap, but a little white does make things a lot lighter and a heavy pizza dough is just no fun. It doesn’t matter what you do,where you buy it from, how Italian the flour is; if you don’t make your own pizza dough, it just ain’t the same! Give it a whirl…..

This is a special pizza for special occasions!!

Roast Asparagus, Lemon and Pesto Pizza

The Bits

Pizza Dough

Our No Knead Pizza Dough is our favourite at the minute. So easy.

Toppings

8 stalks asparagus (tops cut in half length ways)

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

10 cherry tomatoes

1/3 courgette (sliced at a 45o angle if you like)

1 block vegan mozzarella (sliced into 1 cm slices) or use cashew cheese – something that melts

1/2 lemon zest

Handful of pitted olives (chopped)

Pinch chilli flakes

4 tbs green pesto

1/4 cup yoghurt

Fresh basil leaves

Oil

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1/2 lemon zest

juice 1 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tbs white wine vinegar

Do It

Make your pizza dough.

Get your toppings ready, in a small frying pan, add a little olive oil and begin to fry your asparagus with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, when they are beginning to colour they are ready. Repeat process with tomato and courgette.

Roll out your dough on an oiled surface and either use your hands or a rolling pin to massage the dough into a pizza shape. It will be resistant and needs a little coaxing, but will eventually rest into a shape. For a golden crust brush with a little plant milk.

Pre heat fan oven to 220oC (get very hot). If are lucky enough to have a pizza stone, pop that in now.

Spread pesto on pizza, leaving a one inch gap around the edges then scatter your toppings with glee on your dough. Be reckless and generous.

Pop in oven and check after 10-12 minutes, may need another 5 depending on the potency of your hot box. The base of the pizza should be cooked in the centre.

For the oil, simply add all to a bowl and whisk together. This will keep well in the fridge overnight and may be all the better for it!

Serve

Hot out of the oven, spoon over some yoghurt, sprinkle with basil leaves and serve with a nice light green salad with a sweet-ish dressing.

We Love It!

Too easy to love this one, far too easy. From zesty top to crispy bottom, its a all round champion!

Foodie Fact

Asparagus is a good source of dietary fibre and can help with IBS, they are also rich in the vitamin B’s and folates. It also contains many minerals, especially copper and iron.

Categories: Recipes, Spring | Tags: asparagus, asparagus recipes, cooking, dough, food, healthy, homemade, lemon, pesto, pizza, recipe, vegetarian | 17 Comments

Parsnip Mulligatawny

Posted on April 17, 2013 by leroy watson

Secret ‘Mulllleee’ sweetness here – raisins

There’s a mini tornado blowing around the Beach House today, that can only mean one thing, the soup pan is making an appearance. It’s the kind of day when you want to ignore the inclement weather and get cosy by the fire with lashings of soup and preferably a cat and loved one (not in that order of course). So we’re staying in and making a spicy soup.

‘Mulllll-eeeee-gahhh-townnnn-yyyy ‘ is such a great word, it’s a meal in itself. For many years I’ve preferred the word to the soup, it always seemed like a half-hearted attempt at spicing a bland soup up, but always had the potential to be a real star.

We wanted to give the tired old Mulligatawny a touch of Beach House lovin’, add a little tickle and zing to predictable proceedings. The spices here make it rock and warm with a zestiness and aromatic tinge that tingles the palate (coming mainly from our pal the coriander seeds), there is also the lovely sweetness of the raisins and parsnips paired with the warm flavours of the garam masala. The mushrooms here were a late addition and do tend to make soups a little on the grey side. I don’t think they added a great deal here and could easily be omitted.

However, the highlight by far of this little number is our own leeks making an appearance. The Beach House Garden is hardly prolific, but it has given us some gems to savour and these little leeks were wonderful.

Beach House Leeks

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The name ‘Mulligatwany’ actually comes from two Tamil words (a state in the south east corner of India) meaning ‘pepper’ and ‘water’.

If you don’t like coriander husks, try and pick them out before blending (this goes for the bay leaves also). They can be a little tough and catch in the throat, which doesn’t really bother us.

Once more for luck and laughs, ‘Mulllll-eeeee-gahhh-townnnn-yyyy’.

MORE BEACH HOUSE SOUPS

If you like this, here are another couple of Beach House soups (we eat alot of soup up here in the windy hills of Wales):

Beetroot Leaf Soup

Raw Green Thai Soup

Roots Soup

Makes one big pan full, enough for four with possible leftovers. Hoorah!

The Bits

5 medium parsnips, 1 leek, 1 onion, 1 small sweet potato, 3 small potatoes, 4 cloves garlic, 4 large mushrooms, 1 apple, 3 bay leaves, 1/2 cup raisins, 1 ltr good veg stock

Spices – 1 tbs garam masala, 2 teas turmeric, 2 teas ground cumin, 5 cardamom pods, 1 teas coriander seeds

Parsnip Mulligatawny on the hob

Do It

In a large saucepan begin to soften your onions for 3 minutes, then add your leek and garlic, fry gently for 3 more minutes then add the rest of the vegetables and spices, stir in and heat for a couple of minute to get the spices warmed, then add your stock to a lovely low hissing noise. Bring to a gradual boil then cover and simmer for 40 minutes, until the veg is nicely tender.

Blend soup (taking out bay leaves and as many of the cardamom pods as you can fish out) and serve warm.

This soup keeps well in the fridge for days and should be nice thick texture, it may need a little thining out with water.

Parsnip Mulligatawny

Serve

Warm but not too warm (too much heat hides the flavour a little) and plenty of rough brown bread (recipe here). A drizzle of yoghurt/ sour cream is always a pleasant addition, a vegan cashew cream would also be quite amazing.

We Love It!

Proper rustic, hearty soup with a warm spice underbelly and punnet loads of aromatic flavours. Most definitely a meal in a bowl.

Aforementioned cat doing what they do when Tornados blow outside. We have so much to learn from these fur balls.

Foodie Fact

The great thing about parsnips, living in Wales, is that they actually need a good frost to grow well! No shortage of that up here. Parsnips are high in sugar, similar levels to that of banana and they are a great source of dietary fibre.

Categories: Recipes, Soups | Tags: dairy free, gluten-free, healthy, homegrown, mulligatawny, parsnip, recipe, soup, spices, vegan, vegetarian | 8 Comments

Shiitake Mushroom, Sesame & Kelp Noodles

Posted on April 12, 2013 by leroy watson

Konichiwa and greetings! Here we have a lovely Japanese dish to tickle your taste buds; the ingredients are subtle and revitalising, perfect for a light spring lunch, also great chilled as a noodle salad.

We have paid a visit to our brilliant little Asian supermarket in Bangor recently and stocked up on the staples for tasty Japanese and Chinese fare. Noodles are of course a mainstay here, but the dried kelp is something not so easy to find, but well worth getting hold of.

Dried kelp adds a strong vegetal flavour to soups and stocks and, along with the mirin, really makes this salad tick and fizz with flavour. The jerusalem artichokes add nice crunch and sweetness and are plentiful in our area of Wales at the moment. Think of them as a water chestnut substitute of Welsh origin.

The rest of the flavours found here are classically Japanese and the sauce is vaguely Teriyaki. I had a friend as a child, Kenji, and my first most amazing cooking experience (I’ve only remembered this because of this dish, how cool is that!) was at his house with his Mum. We had to cook in front of our school class, I have no idea why, so I went around Kenji’s house one Sunday and we got straight into the kitchen and whipped up a Teriyaki Noodles as I recall. I remember it being another world of flavour’s and techniques and like absolutely nothing I’d seen before or tasted before. The way Kenji’s Mum approached cooking was so different. I was then a major Japanese food fan, 10 years old, and still am to this day.

The dish would be best garnished with some toasted sesame seeds, but we seem to have ran out! We finished it with some dried sea salad, but you can hardly see it on the pics, but it’s there and the flavour is wonderfully oceanic and salty. Sea salad is very similar to seaweed, which would also make a great topping here. Anything edible, green and living in the sea is bound to be amazing for you and taste like seaside rocks (you know that flavour!).

THE LAND OF MUSHROOMS

In this part of Wales we are blessed with the finest grower of shiitake and other mushroom varities in the UK, The Mushroom Garden. Being nice and damp and misty, Wales in the perfect place for mushroom cultivation and their shiitake’s and mushrooms in general are some of the finest I’ve tasted. I have been trying to track down a hedgehog mushroom for a while now, they are elusive little critters! The Mushroom Garden are also doing an ‘Umami’ seasoning, which sounds interesting and will be sprinkled on things in the BHK very soon. It’s great to have such wonderful, passionate producers locally.

Here in North Wales, good Japanese food is quite rare, homegrown is best. This salad turned out very well and I’d hope Kenji’s Mum would be happy with my progress!

Sayonara & Peacex

Makes two decent bowls.

The Bits

15og shiitake mushrooms

6 medium jerusalem artichokes (sliced into 1cm discs)

2 spring onion (finely chopped)

1/2 teas chilli flakes

1 tbs minced ginger

1 cup of dried kelp

150g fine wheat noodles

2 tbs light soya sauce

2 teas rice vinegar

1 tbs sesame oil

2 tbs mirin

1 cup noodle/ kelp cooking broth

1 teas brown sugar (if needed)

2 teas cooking oil

Garnish

Sprinkle dried sea salad/ sea weed, chopped fresh coriander, toasted sesame seeds

Do It

In a saucepan, warm 2 teas of oil and fry your shiitake for a few minutes then add your artichokes and ginger, fry for five minutes and add your vinegar first (allow it to evaporate a little) then add chilli, sesame oil, soya sauce and mirin. Keep your eye on the mushrooms, shiitake will absorb alot of liquid and can go a little soggy. They will release this liquid after a few minutes more of cooking.

Continue to cook on a high heat and reduce the sauce a little, check seasoning, it may need a little more sugar. Cover and keep warm.

Have some boiling water ready in another sauce pan, pop in your kelp and cook for 3 minutes, then add your fine noodles and cook for a minute. That’s all it should take. Seive the noodles and kelp and keep the stock. Run under cold water to cool the noodles down. This salad is best served warm. Reserve any leftover stock for other soups and stews, even freeze it, the flavour is well worth it.

Add your noodles to your mushroom mix and pop in your spring onions. Stir gently together, combine well.

Shiitake, Sesame and Kelp Noodles

Serve

In warm bowls with chopsticks, extra mirin and soya sauce available. Make sure everyone gets a decent amount of mushroom and artichoke, they tend to sink to the the bottom. Sprinkle on your toppings and enjoy.

We Love It!

Full of the flavours of classic Japanese cuisine and is nice and easy to get together and great served hot or cold. Great quick bite material and something that keeps nicely.

Foodie Fact

Shiitake Mushrooms (or Wood Mushroom in Japanese) have been used by the Chinese for over 6,000 years medicinally and are burting with health giving properties. Brilliant for voth the immune and cardiovascular system, the Shiitake is also full of iron.

Although the Shiitake may seem like an iconic Japanese ingredient, China now produces 80% of the worlds Shiitakes. No great surprises there though.

All this nutrition talk is all well and good, but the best way to feel healthy, is to feel healthy! Enjoy your cookingx

Categories: Recipes, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: cooking, healthy, japanese, kelp, mushroom, noodles, recipe, shiitake, the mushroom garden, vegan, vegetarian | 7 Comments

Layered Filo Pie with Sweet Potato, Puy Lentils and Cashew Cream Filling

Posted on April 1, 2013 by leroy watson

Layered Filo Pie with Sweet Potato, Puy Lentils and Cashew Cream

After a long walk with Mum and a ride on the Ffestiniog Highland Train it was time for a pie, but not just any old pie though. A wonderful day demands wonderful pie and this one has been on my mind ever since I read the recipe.

This layered filo pie will suit any special occasions and satisfy all loved ones, especially those who are still skeptical about the whole vegan approach. Get on board, try this pie, eat more nut cheese! The cashew cream is the real star here, adding bags of creaminess and that ‘something a bit different’ that I love in any recipe. This is not our first play with cashews and it also makes a very respectable cheese, although denser in texture, cashew cheese would also make a great layer for this kind of pie.

The inspiration for this magic pie came from the brilliant Becky over at Veg Hot Pot, a blog for anybody who likes tasty food cooked with heart and soul. Becky is attracted to big flavours and gorgeous looking food. Cheers Becks!

We have of course tampered with the original and added some of our favourite bits (we’ve just made one with lime zest, smoked paprika and a spinach layer…..but we digress……) We have added roast peppers and sweet potato instead of the delicious sounding roast carrots, we have used sage to flavour the sweet potatoes, because I love that little combo of green ‘erb and funky orange spud. There is also a tablespoon of tomato paste in the puy lentils, this is a rich tart and the tomato lifts things a little.

I love giving meat eaters a run for their money in the flavour stakes, this meets and beats any meaty creation in Christendom (it is Easter after all!). The look of the pie will make jaws drop; cook it for an Uncle who has gravy on his corn flakes or that boyfriend who cannot omit meat from any plate of food. I’d love to hear the response from that crew?! Let me know….

The filo adds a nice crunch here, its a great thin pastry for making a guaranteed crisp pie base. I very rarely buy pastry, but this is a no-brainer. Filo sits there quite happily until called upon.

Mum’s comment after pie for dinner tonight whilst holding her belly:

‘Blimey Lee, I feel like I’ve had a pie!’

This pie is magical in so many ways, mainly because of its versatility. You can play around with the flavours and layers and the potential combinations are mind boggling.

Recipe makes two individual pies, more than enough for two good folk. If you are eating the pie with vegetables, half a pie is more than enough per person.

Layered Filo Pie

The Bits

1 big sweet potato (cubed)

2 fat cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 red pepper (cut into thick flattish slices)

1 onion, (finely diced)

2 small leeks (finely chopped)

1 cup soaked cashew nuts (overnight)

4 sheets of filo pastry

1 teas dried sage

250g puy lentils

glugs of vegetable oil for frying.

Do It

Turn on your fan oven, 200oC.

Sort out your lentils, either cook them or open the can. Cooked fresh is of course best (follow pack instructions). Normally cover with an inch of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 mins. They should be completely soft, but not mushy. At this stage stir in your tomato paste and heat through.

Toss your sweet pots in oil and sage and roast for 15 minutes, until soft and slightly golden. Remove and cover. Leave for 10 minutes then mash. Whilst that is going on, add your peppers to the oven and roast for 10-15 mins until becoming slightly charred.

Rinse your cashew nuts and place in a food processor with half a cup of water and a pinch of salt and blitz for 5 minutes until creamy and thick, the texture of hummus is good.

In a frying pan, add a tablespoon of oil and begin to fry your onions off on a medium heat. Get them nice and golden, we’re looking for nice sweetness here, then add your leeks and garlic, cook for a further 10 minutes on a low/ medium heat. All should be very soft indeed. Then add you cashew cream and stir well together.

All layer ingredients can be made well in advance and refrigerated.

Take two small ovenproof dishes, or pie dishes approx 5 inch diameter by 2 inch deep. Oil them up ready for action.

Use filo straight from the fridge and brush oil over each layer, use three layers for each base. Spoon in your layers starting with sweet potato, then peppers layed out, then lentils and finally the cashew cream mix. Make sure all layers are pressed snugly into the corners of the pie, giving a distinct layered look and good full shape to the pie.

Pop them in the oven and check after 10 minutes, the pastry may get a little dark. If so, place tin foil over the pies.

Cook for 25-35 minutes, until the bases are nicely golden and crisp.

Lovely layers

Serve

Leave to rest for a couple of minutes in the dish then pop out onto a wire rack to cool and settle for 5 minutes. Then mange! We had ours with a tomato chutney and it was a tasty feast.

We Love It!

This is a rich tart and very nicely segregated, it looks a million dollars! The cashew cream works fantastically well, it browns a little and gives a fantastic creamy texture. Who needs cheese!

Foodie Fact

Cashews are not devoid of calories, but we’d be a sorry state without enough fuel! Some people I’ve met on raw food diets etc have warned me off cashew nuts, but in a world riddled with vices and food fads, I hardly think the odd cashew nut will push me over the calorific edge. A roasted cashew is a thing of beauty and grows on trees. They also contains plenty of vitamins, minerals and a hefty dollop of fibre.

Categories: Recipes, Vegan | Tags: cashew cream, easter, filo, food, healthy, layered, nut cheese, pie, puy lentils, recipe, vegan, vegetarian | 28 Comments

Creamy Tofu & Olive Dip (Vegan)

Posted on March 31, 2013 by leroy watson

Tofu and Olive Dip

HAPPY EASTER Y’ALL!x

Easter is all about family, Mum’s here and we’ve been doing some celebrating. It seems nowadays that no party is complete without a stonking dip to showcase (or is that just me!) Dips act as the perfect accompaniment to pre-meal nattering and decadent snacking antics.

This is a very creamy/ cheesy tasting dip without the cheese. I think its the olives and tofu that combine to form an unusual vegan cheesiness. It is rich and like all dips, superbly versatile. Spread it on things, dip things in it, eat it by the spoonful, anyway you enjoy this is just fine by us.

Making our own tofu appeals, but we hear it can be a pain. Here is an interesting little clip that has inspired us and simplified things greatly:

We are moving back to our vegan ways, little by little and this kind of vegan dip leaves us with plenty of space to get stuck into our Easter bounty. Mum even made Jane and I an egg this year, what a talented creature! Its chocolate and ginger and will definitely not be seeing the light of Easter Monday. YUM.

I’ve put one clove of garlic down here, but we actually had two as we are full-on garlic fiends. One is erring on the side of normality.

This can be thinned down by adding a cup of water, or a little oil, depending on your persuasion, to make a nice thick salad dressing.

Happy dipping!

The Bits

250g firm tofu, 1 cup green olives (pitted), 1 lemon (juice and zest), 1 clove garlic (crushed), 1 handful mint leaves, 1 handful basil leaves, sea salt and cracked pepper to taste, dash of fruity olive oil

Do It

Pop all ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.

Serve

We added it to a salad, adding nice creaminess and have also dunked wedges of carrots in with gusto.

We Love It!

All the cheesiness without the dairy bits! A pleasant change and very quick to get together, for all your impromptu party dip needs!

Tofu in all its glory

Foodie Fact

Tofu is a magic food with a bad rep due to tiresome jokes about vegetarian hippies and the like. It is an acquired taste to some, but adds a great texture to all it touches and is a great vehicle for bags of fat-free protein in anybodies diet. Tofu contains more protein than eggs and milk and contains a quarter less calories than beef and a third of the calories (that’s the main protein brigade taken care of!). Like all plant based foods, tofu is completely cholesterol free.

Like with all soya products, we strongly recommend going organic.

Categories: Dressings, Recipes, Side Dish, Vegan | Tags: dip, food, healthy, herb, homemade, olive, recipe, tofu, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Avocado and Basil Cheese

Posted on March 21, 2013 by leroy watson

Avocado and Basil Cheese

The idea for this little wonder came from the venerable Paul Gayler, a man who is a top, top chef and also creates magic vegetarian food. We had his book out of the library ‘Pure Vegetarian’ and it was refreshing to read such inventive vegetarian dishes created by a chef who is not actually vegetarian himself.

I wrote down quite a few of the recipes, but this one stuck in my mind and I’ve been going on about it ever since, ‘Jane we must make that avocado cheese’ was becoming a daily muttering as I opened the fridge. Finally, I got around to it and it was worth the wait.

Somethings are just meant to go together, and creamy cheese, avocado and lemon is a match made is tasteville. I added some Basil because we have a profusion (I have no idea where Jane is getting it all from!)

Preparation is simple here and for a vegan alternative, try it with well drained firm tofu or even cashew cheese. If you are not a huge fan of feta, try ricotta instead. You’ll be downgrading the flavourful, salty tang of the feta, but the most important thing is that you try this recipe! In fact, it could be called more of technique, mashing avocado with different delicious ingredients. Hmmmmm, this could become a hobby of sorts.

Here it is, in all its glory and simplicity. Green cheese!

The Bits

1 avocado (Haas is best), 1 block of tofu or feta, 1/2 lemon (juice only), 10 basil leaves (finely shredded), 1 tbs nutritional yeast flakes (if using tofu)

Avocado cheese in the mix

Do It

Two ways- for a chunkier finish to the cheese, place all ingredients in a bowl and mash together using a masher or a fork. This is a nice hands on way of getting it together.

Alternatively, for a smoother cheese, pop all ingredients in a blender and whizz up until well mixed and all is green and smooth.

If you are using tofu or ricotta, you may need to add a pinch of sea salt to the mix.

Tip – When scraping out the avocado (this is true for most fruit and vegetables) make sure to scrape out the parts closest to the skin, if you can, use the skin. This is where the highest levels of nutrients are found.

Serve

We had ours simply lathered on celery sticks but I’m eating an oatcake now drowned in this glorious creation and it seems really good on anything. Use in salads or on pan fried/ steamed vegetables.

Avocado and Basil Cheese

We Love It!

This will be a regular in our fridge this summer, it will not keep for long with the avocado turning brown quickly, but it wont last long anyway!

Foodie Fact

There are always odd facts and advice about food. Avocado got a bad name previously for having high fat, but its good fat, natural fat. These fats regulate your blood sugar levels and boost levels of good cholesterol. Avos contains all of the amino acids which are absorbed into the body via the high fibre content of avocado. They are also high in carotenoids which are high in vitamin A (and normally associated with carrots) A is a great vitamin for protecting the body.

Categories: Recipes | Tags: avocado, basil, food, good cholesterol, good fats, healthy, nutriton, paul gayler, recipe, vegan, vegetarian | 13 Comments

Punjabi Rajma Chawal – Red Kidney Bean Curry

Posted on March 17, 2013 by leroy watson

Kitchen in a Punjabi Dhaba – http://alexbecherer.tumblr.com

A simple bean curry and very much a nutritious staple in India homes and especially the legendary roadside Punjabi Dhabas. This red kidney bean curry has a fantastic full flavour and is easy and cheap to get together (it’s also a super healthy bite).

Punjabi food is renowned as one of India’s finest. Very rich and packed with spice. Punjab is a state located in the North West of India, bordering Pakistan and is home to many Sikhs. The Golden Temple in Amritsar is rightly regarded as one of the most awesome religious monuments. The Punjab is a very arable region, meaning a great diversity of produce.

Punjabi dhabas are famous for their cheap, fresh and super tasty food. They are basically an eatery, that have spread around India and the world. Wherever there are Punjabis, there are Dhabas! In a Punjabi Dhaba the food is always quick and plentiful with a constant stream of fresh rotis from the tandoor oven and top ups of all curries, relishes and rice dishes. Its a great way to eat, a real food experience and you always leave with a full belly.

These Dhabas started to feed truck drivers originally and the range of dishes are quite standard from Chandigarh to Chiswick. Dal Makhani is one of my favourites; a dark, rich lentil stew. It will be here on the BHK soon (I can’t believe its taken this long!)

Chilling at the Golden Temple at sunset

For years I was disillusioned with kidney beans; I didn’t like the name or the way they were served (normally in an insipid tomato stew, aka the dreaded British style chilli con carne). I was ten years old at that time and have come a long way round since. This is one of the finest way to serve a kidney bean, the rich and spicy tomato sauce compliment the earthy bean well.

In India it can be difficult to get beans, but the rajma (kidney bean in Hindi) is easily found and consistently tasty with mounds of chawal (rice). I cannot go long without a bean hit after all.

This is something that I have been whipping up after work recently and although the list on ingredients looks a little extensive, its actually a stroll once you get into the groove. Instead of all the individual spices, use something like a Garam Masala mix or even a good quality curry powder.

We normally stir some soya yoghurt in just before serving to give that extra touch of richness. The finer you chop or grate your vegetables the greater release of flavour. The just disappear into the sauce. Grating garlic, ginger, onions and even tomatoes is a great way of making an intense fresh sauce, much, much better than anything you can buy in a tin.

The Bits

2 tbs cooking oil (unrefined)

1 onion (grated/ finely chopped)

4 cloves garlic

2 inch cube of ginger (both grated/ crushed)

4 tomatoes (chopped finely/ grated)

1 teas fennel seeds

1 teas cumin powder

1/2 teas turmeric

1 teas coriander powder

1/4 – 1/2 teas chilli powder

sea salt (to taste)

For the beans

2 cups dried red kidney beans (tins can be used, but not as good)

4 cloves

3 cardamom pods

1 stick cinnamon (or 1 teas cinnamon powder)

1 bay leaf

Topping

1 handful torn coriander leaves

1 tbsp soya yoghurt (stirred in – optional)

Gorgeous spicy tomato sauce get down reducing

Do It

Beans – Soak your beans for 12 hours in cold water. Rinse well and cover with 2 inches of water and bring to the boil, add your spices and allow to boil, then lower heat and pop a lid on. Leave to simmer for 1 hour, until they are nice and tender. If the beans are falling apart slightly, no problem, this will help to thicken the sauce. You can of course use tinned beans if you’re in a hurry.

Sauce – In a frying pan, add your oil and on a medium heat cook your onions until golden, then add your ginger, fennel seeds and garlic, give it another three minutes, now its time for your tomatoes and spices, stir well and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook until tomatoes are nicely softened, 6-8 minutes is fine.

Get your beans into the mix (we used our flash new slotted spoon here. Hoorah!) add all the beans and 250ml of the cooking stock (more can be added if sauce is a little thick). Heat through, a gentle bubble, for 10 minutes more and you’re ready to get Dhaba’d!

Punjabi Rajma Chawal

Serve

Stir in your soya yoghurt and pour over fluffy rice and a chapatti (if you are very lucky and have time, make your own!). Coriander leaves scatter very well here.

We Love It!

Simple and full of the spices and aromas that make India cooking so tantalising and satisfying. Heres to all those Dhabas out there! Dishing up brilliant food for pennies and keeping the truck drivers of India rotund and smiling. Much better than a Little Chef I can tell you!

Foodie Fact

Red kidney beans and beans in general are full of fibre (in fact they are the best source of fibre) that benefits not only the digestive system but also lowers cholesterol. These beans are a virtually fat free source of protein,

We get alot of our foodie fact information from the comprehensive site W H Foods. Whats in a kumquat? W H know these things.

Tunes

The thing I love about cooking all this Indian food in the Beach House Kitchen is the opportunity to share my favourite Indian artists. Here’s the master Ali Akbar Khan and another mesmeric raja:

Categories: Curries, Recipes | Tags: chawal, curry, dhaba, food, healthy, india, music, photography, punjabi, rajma, recipe, red kidney bean, vegetarian | 11 Comments

greenPOWsauce! (aka Salsa Verde)

Posted on March 4, 2013 by leroy watson

greenPOWsauce (or Salsa Verde)

A simple and lip smacking sauce from our hombres in Mexico. Salsa Verde is so fresh tasting, especially when lathered on a street taco in Mexico City. Viva la verde! Summer is on the way, we need to get these recipes gathered and prepared. Here comes the sun……….

With a fridge full of amazing green herbs and lemons all around, making this was a real no-brainer. I have played around with the spices here, but I think it adds even more punch and flavour to the sauce.

I was first introduced to this incredible, tangy number in a Mexican street stall lathered all over a street taco with lashings of raw chillis (normally after a few late night tequilas). The art of a good taco is in the balance of all the ingredients, but for me the salsa verde was always the most interesting component. How do they fit so much POW (followed instantly by a TWANG) into a sauce?! Later I found out and have been making variations ever since, normally potent concoctions with herbs, citrus and chilli as the core (and of course the essential tomatillos (green tomatoes).

The Verde is a super healthy affair also, making your own sauces cuts out the middle man, who usually enjoys adding scary sounding chemicals to sauces and no doubt bags of white sugar and other baddies.

Local lemons

This salsa is easily prepared and you may want to chop up your garlic, lemon rind etc depending on the potency of your food processor. We think its best to mash it all up in a pestle and mortar (and hope you have time for this). Here in Spain, our blender/f.p. is more of a smoothie maker and woefully under powered for the umph a salsa verde needs, you should be left with a vivid green sauce, all the bits well blended and together, mingling and sharing.

Due to the tomatoes, salsa verde doesn’t hang around to long in the fridge, its best eaten fresh poured over roasted veggies or in sandwiches/ tacos/ enchiladas/ burritos etc and we also use it in cooking as a sauce. Salsa Verde will also grace any pasta, I wonder if they’ve thought of it in Italy yet!?

Tomatillos can be a little hard to get hold of outside Mexico, other green tomatoes work almost as well.

Happy whizzingX

Makes one decent size tubful

The Bits

4 large green tomatoes/ tomatillos, 1 tbsp capers, 1 ½ big handfuls of fresh coriander, 1 of parsley, 1 of mint, 1 teas roasted fennel seeds, 1 teas roasted coriander seeds, 1 teas ground coriander, 2 fresh red chillis (jalapeno? Gauge how hot you like it), 3 cloves of garlic, 2 lemons (juice and zest), 150ml olive oil, hefty pinch of sea salt

In the mix – Salsa Verder

Do It

Pop all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz away until deep green and extremely tasty. Or if you lead a life of leisure and want to do it properly, add garlic, seeds, capers, chilli and lemon zest to you pestle and mortar, add a little oil and get mashing! Add this potent paste to your food processor with the other ingredients and blitz for 2 minutes.

Serve

Its very easy to just ladle this straight into your mouth! We would however recommend it mixed in with roasted veggies and will zing up any rice dish. Use it as a sauce and revel in the goodness. Jane and I would also have it thinned out a little, as the perfect dressing for a lively salad.

Salsa Verde

We Love It!

There is nothing like the bite and zing of a salsa verde, citrus and herbaceous with hints of spice. It’s really, very healthy too. The only sauce for a spring barbecue and salad session. Why not start early this year!

Foodie Fact

All those green leaf herbs are superbly good for you, packed with anti-oxidants. Tomatillos were originally cultivated by the Aztecs and contain more minerals than your average red tomato.

Tunes

The only soundtrack to salsa making, Santa Esmeralda – ‘Please don’t let me be misunderstood’ (bad miming and all!)

Categories: Recipes, Sauces, Vegan | Tags: cooking, food, healthy, mexican, music, photography, raw, recipe, salsa, vegan, verde | 5 Comments

Ciambotta – Italian Butter Bean Stew with lots of Greens

Posted on March 2, 2013 by leroy watson

From the top of Knicht – Snowdonia, Wales

We are just back in Wales, the home of the Beach House and arrived to a clear night and a million star welcome! Today has been fantastic, getting settled in again and unpacking the wine bought in France and Spain. We may need to build an extension to fit it all in!

After all the fussing about and sorting we decided to head to the hills, Knicht to be exact, a Himalayan looking mountain near Porthmadog. It is an impressive rocky peak and we knew we had a good day of scrambling and sharp climbs ahead. It turned out to be an awesome walk, with views of the Snowdon range and the Irish Sea. Knicht is surrounded by many small mountain lakes and we’ve made plans to return and camp up there soon. Jane and I are so lucky to live in such beautiful places. We are loving being back in Wales and of course a major part of that is the Beach House Kitchen.

We are getting re-acquainted with all of our cool kitchen stuff; spatulas, knives graters and Buster our semi-wild cat (who lives in the wood store). We’ve been cooking up a storm with oat breads, hummus, fruit salads and lashing of proper cups of tea. Amongst this frenzy came the idea for his stew.

We fancied a change of taste, we do eat alot of spiced food and have talked of visiting Italy for an age. We have also been eating far too much amazing cheese in France and quaffing the odd glass of vino, all in all, we feel a little jaded after two weeks or more on the road and this Ciambotta recipe heralds a step back to the food we really love; healthy, fresh, local and hearty.

This Ciambotta, I would imagine, is very un-Italian to most Italians. But it looks very Italian in Wales I can assure you! We’re a long way from Milan! The colours and citrus of the dish, not to mention the vegan parmesan and hint of tarragon, make for an interesting take on the traditional Ciambotta; a dish normally cooked by Italian Mum’s to use up spare vegetables. There is nothing spare about these vegetable though, they are all in peak condition, as they should be. Jane has been searching high and low for good produce, it’s that time of year when all that seems good are the Jerusalem Artichokes (nothing wrong with that then!)

To make this recipe more Italian, substitute the parsnip and carrot for aubergine and courgette. But we’re back in the B.H.K and the local veg is brilliant. We’ve also missed our friend the parsnip, they are as rare as vegans is Spain!

We used Winter Greens here, they are like cabbage leaves. Kale, Savoy Cabbage and the like would also be grand. Even Spinach would be cool, anything dark green and leafy. The Greens work well because when rolled up and chopped thin, they actually resemble something like pasta (gluten-free wa-hay!)

Bon Appetito!

The Bits – For 4 hungry folk

3 cups cooked butter beans

2 tbs olive oil

1 large onion (finely sliced)

1 stick celery (finely sliced)

2 large carrots (small cubes)

1 large parsnips (small cubes)

4 cloves garlic (finely sliced)

2 big handfuls of greens (whole leaves finely sliced)

1 big handful of cherry tomatoes

1 lemon (juice and zest)

3 bay leaves

2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoons dried basil

2 cups butter bean stock (cooking juice)

2 tbs vegan parmesan cheese (buy online and in selected shops)

Do It

Cook off your beans for 1 hour (bring to a boil then simmer with a lid). They should be nice and tender. Set aside, this can be done well in advance, you can store them in the fridge for a couple of days.

On a medium heat, warm 1 tbs of oil in a heavy based frying pan and begin to sweat off your onions (5 mins), when soft add your bay leaves, carrots, celery, parsnip and garlic, stir well and cook for 3 mins, then add your dried herbs and tomatoes, stir well and cook for 5 mins and then add your beans and bean juice. Turn the heat up and cook for 5 – 10 mins get it all nice and warm, the veggies should be getting soft and the bean juice reducing a little.

At this stage, pop your lemon zest and juice, parmesan cheese, greens and a glug of great olive oil into the mix, stir in and then pop a lid on and warm on lowest heat for 5 minutes. If you need a little more sauce, just pop some bean stock in and heat through.

Serve

We topped ours with some fresh parsley and basil leaves and nothing else! A little more parmesan on top, but that would be lovely. It’s quite a hearty stew, but of course being Italian-ish, a good lump of bread may be in order.

In the Beach House we love stirring yogurt into stews to add some creaminess.

We Love It!

The lemon does it here and the pungent parmesan. We love this take on the Italian classic Ciambotta and are glad to be back in the land of the splendid parsnip. This stew is laden with glorious veggies, just the way we like ‘em.

Tunes

As always, we try and keep you abreast of Beach House tunes, now we’re back on the island (Britain) we are re-integrating with some cool youngsters Alt-J, nice beats and melodies off the ‘Awesome Wave’, here we are ‘Dissolve Me’. Wicked!:

Categories: Dinner, Recipes, Stew, Wales | Tags: butter bean, ciambotta, food, healthy, italian, music, photography, recipe, stew, vegetable, vegetarian, wales | 4 Comments

Mango, Mint & Chickpea Salad

Posted on February 15, 2013 by leroy watson

Whats our favourite fruit? Mango (of course!)

In the world of things fruity and exotic, the mango stands tall, a royal pip amongst all things seeded. Mango is such a tough fruit to harvest, the trees secrete poison that is quite nasty when the fruit is picked, making mango something to cherish and enjoy with glee. I know this because I have randomnly harvested mangoes on a Nicaraguan island. It’s a long story, but they were lovely.

This chickpea concoction is a saladty departure for mangos fruity sweetness. It is a purposefully sweet salad for those folk who are not generally willing leaf munchers. The sweetness and awesome textures plus the creamy yoghurt dressing are a real highlight A good one for entertaining friends and family if you happen to be a vegan and with summer just around the corner, we need to get our salad skills dust free and sharp.

We very rarely get to use mangos as we live in Wales for most of the year and the Welsh mangos resemble rugby balls in texture and odour! Rubbery and rugged that is. They are a bit more exotic over here in Spain and there are a few fable mango trees in a particular valley nearby. Nobody seems to know where they are though but they are said to be the sweetest mangos ever (nice fairytale huh!). I think the mangos we used came freight class all the way from Costa Rica but for this salad we’ll make an exception to our ‘mostly local’ focus.

Recipe Notes

The dressing here is nice and thick and coats the salad, we normally prepare the salad when the chickpeas are luke warm, it really gets the flavours going. The pomegranate molasses is something we picked up in the Iranian supermarket in Brixton. It packs a real tang! It is not essential, but good to have in the cupboard, if you can seek some out, it is a pleasant addition to the pantry.

You can use sprouted chickpeas here if you would prefer making this a raw salad.

Here goes. A regal fruity and spicy salad with barrel loads of flavour!

The Bits – Makes one decent salad bowlful

1 mango (pipped)

1 cup butternut squash

1/2 cucumber

1 carrot

1 small red pepper (all diced small)

2 cups cooked chickpeas (roughly one and half tins)

1 chilli (very finely diced, watch out for spiciness!)

½ handful of roast pumpkin seedsr

Dressing

Mint (2 handfuls)

Coriander (1 handful)

½ a lemon (juice and zest)

3 tbs soya yoghurt (unsweetened)

1 tbs olive oil

2 teas pomegranate molasses

½ teas ground cumin

1/4 teas cinamom

1 teas smoked paprika

Sea salt (to taste)

Do It
Chop all fruit/ veg into 1cm cubes, nice and easy to crunch and gets the flavours and textures mixed well. Place in your finest salad bowl, mix together, adding chilli and seeds.

Add dressing ingredients to a food processor and blitz for a short time, checking the seasoning. The dressing should be thick, and herbs incorporated. The dressing clings to the chickpeas.

Reserve one handful of mint and chop roughly, for the topping.

Que Rico! Mango Salad

Serve
We like a splash more lemon juice and a few more pumpkin seeds and the chopped mint on top, just before serving.

We Love It!
Fragrant mango and chunky chickpeas!! Two of our favourite treats in a salad.

Foodie Fact
Mango is not only the most luscious and decadent of the fruits, it also packs a nutritious punch. Mango is full of vitamin A (beta-carotene), alot like carrots really, a brilliant anti-oxidant that will keep you shining.

Categories: Dressings, Recipes, Salads | Tags: chickpeas, dressing, food, healthy, mango, pomegranate molasses, raw, recipe, salad, summer, sweet salad, vegetarian | 9 Comments

Rambo Tomato and Roast Fennel Curry

Posted on February 11, 2013 by leroy watson

Rambo Tomato and Roast Fennel Curry

With tomatoes literally (almost!) falling from vines before our eyes, this is a curry that is local spice bonanza. For many years I’ve been hunched over a bubbling pot of fragrant curry masala: a spoonful here, a spoonful there; ever seeking perfection in blends of spices and sometimes herbs. This is not it, but its mighty close.

Some of my spices are straight from India, brought back on the plane in my backpack. The pack itself stunk like a Mumbai spice shop, fortunately I flew Egypt Air, Egyptians are no strangers to aromatic spices themselves. During the flight, I got vague sniffs of cumin and turmeric, I knew where they were coming from and I smiled, safe in the knowledge that I was smuggling curried gold dust.

People seem put off by curries, the list of ingredients itself can be daunting. It’s actually fairly straightforward, if you are a little organised (which for curries I am). Once you learn the basics of curry making, especially with a healthy tomato base like here, you are off into a world of pungent kitchen happiness.

These tomatoes are curiously named ‘Rambo’. I have no idea why and when I asked the tomato man at the market he simply said “Because they are from around here.” with suitable gruffness and disdain. They are a macho lot in these parts after all!

A little snap taken on a rambla walk near our casa.

There are many spices here, not an everyday curry, but one fit for a feast and fine friends. The main difference between Indian food in restaurants and at home is that Indian chefs are not afraid to be wild and free with the spices. They also normally add lashing of ghee (clarified butter) to make it sparkle and tantalise. This tomato curry is perfect for the calorie conscious curry muncher, full of flavour and superbly healthy. This surely is some kind of elixir! After some Indian meals in restaurants I feel quite heavy and lethargic (with a smile on my face however), you don’t get that treatment here.

Please try and buy good spices and keep them out of sunlight and in a sealable container. It is well worth it, a little effort could produce a curry that blows your mind.

This makes one large panful, enough for at least six hungry curry fiends.

The Bits

6 lovely large and ripe red tomatoes (chop – see below), 1 large onion (sliced), 1 stick of celery (thinly sliced), 8-10 cloves of garlic (finely chopped), 1 bulb of fennel (sliced), 1 large red pepper, 2 inch sq of fresh ginger (finely chopped), 2 teas fennel seeds, 1 teas yellow mustard seeds, 2 star anise, 2 teas ground coriander, 1 teas turmeric, 2 teas curry powder (a good one), 1 teas cumin, 8 fresh green cardamoms, ½ teas chilli powder (or as incendiary as you prefer).

Do It

Prepare all of your spices, this is quickly cooked and you don’t want to be fumbling around with packets and lids which normally leads me towards turmeric leaks and general chaos. Pop all ground spices into into a dry bowl, and the anise and cardamom into another.

Chop two tomatoes finely, forming something resembling pulp. The rest can be cut into large segments, roughly 8 to a normal sized tomato.

In a hot pan with a good glug of oil, roast off your fennel and peppers until both have colour and a little softness to them. Set aside and cover.

In the same pan on high heat, add more oil (1 tbs) and fry off your onions until soft (5mins) then add your fennel seeds and yellow mustard seeds, give a minute and constantly stir. Then the celery, garlic and ginger, stir in and give another minute and keep it all moving. Then for the spices (being careful not to burn them, add water if needed), add your spices and stir well for couple of minutes, then the cardamom and star anise can be added and the well chopped tomatoes added. Stir well and get all the flavour incorporated from the pan base (that’s the good stuff!)

Cover tightly and lower heat, leave to simmer and infuse for 10 minutes. Stir in your roasted fennel, peppers and tomato segments. Cover again and cook for a further 15 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft.

Try not to stir this curry much at this stage, you want the tomatoes retain their shape and texture.

Rambo Tomato and Roast Fennel Curry

Serve

Finish with a splash of olive oil stirred in (gives it shine and a little richness) then blob on some yoghurt and brown rice, topped all fresh coriander leaves. The serving style that we like to call ‘A La Beach House’.

We Love It!

One of our favourite homemade curry delights that we’d love you to try. We made it for a recent curry night and there were many mmmmmmm’s.

Foodie Fact

Fennel is of the same family as parsley, cumin, carraway and dill. Fennel could we be native to Spain and is a highly sought after veg in these parts. Fennel contains many essential oil compounds, anti-oxidants and a good amount of dietary fibre. Although the seeds are the real stars of the fennel plant, packed full of many, many good things.

Categories: Curries, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: calories, curry, fennel, food, healthy, masala, recipes, tomato, vegan, vegetarian | 5 Comments

Pimiento, Noras and Potato Soup

Posted on January 30, 2013 by leroy watson

A soup with a kick and a tickle that is bound to get you buzzing this winter. A real Sopa de Espana here, all ingredients coming from the Mazarron area.

Many people have asked what the heck we are doing going on a three month holiday. Who one earth do we think we are?!!!!!etc….. Well, we’re making soup; and other things. This soup sprang up from a little potter in the kitchen and rifle through the veggie box. It’s not snowing in the bay, but it can get slightly chilly some night fall.

Here in Murcia, people are wrapped up warm, scarves wrapped around their faces and big thick coats are all the rage. It’s 18-24 degrees! It makes me smile and also admire the resilience of the good folk of Britain and other cold parts of the world. This soup is an offering from the Beach House Kitchen to all those shivering and sniffing their way through with a smile.

Noras are little dried red peppers sold all over Spain and normally used when preparing stews and soups. They add a lovely sweet, peppery tang to all they touch and remind me of the wonder food of Mexico, where the dried chilli is king. Dried peppers come in many shapes and sizes, some large black and sticky, some dark red and spicy.

Pimiento is another word for pepper, red pepper, we love it because it sounds so Spanish! We are lucky (we know this!) to have wild thyme growing in the ramble (dry river bed) below our home. Splashing a little olive oil on the top of a soup really adds richness to proceedings, olive oil is of course ubiquitous with all things Spanish food. It’s crops up in biscuits, cakes, shower gel and even amazing crisps (crisps fried in olive oil seems so decadent!). We need alot of calories and fat in winter months when the body is trying to keep us from perishing! Olives lend a hand here. My friend Chris, who lives here swears by it and claims bread is ‘merely a vehicle for olive oil’.

The veg. stock we used here came from last nights dinner, the water used for cooking potatoes. Such a shame to throw it away, it is packed with flavour. Back in Wales, we’d blend this together with a hand blender, soups with potato in always blend amazingly well. They go very creamy and full. Here, we enjoyed the texture of the lumps and chunks, listening to Ravi Shankar (r.i.p. Ravi ji) and toasted our friends and family on the grey island, hoping they were all cosy and shiny.

Gorgeous Spanish Tomato

This recipe makes one big panful, enough for approx, 6 decent bowlfuls.

The Bits

1 onion (sliced), 1 stick celery (sliced), 2 large potatoes (firm variety/ cubed), 3 noras (finely sliced), 2 large tomatoes (skin them if you have the time), 2 heaped teas smoked paprika, ½ teas chilli powder (we used a fresh green chilli named ‘Pimiento Padron – Shepherds Peppers’. Que rico!), 1 tbs balsamic vinegar, 1 teas fresh thyme, approx. 1 1/2 -2 litres good veggie stock, 1 big handful coriander, good extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Do It

In a large soup/ saucepan heat a little oil, begin to sweat off your onion. After the onion becomes glassy and soft add your noras and cook for 2 minutes, then add your paprika, thyme and finally your balsamic vinegar. This will begin to bubble and evaporate, stir well and get all the ingredients nicely involved with each other. If things get a little sticky and dry, add a splash of veggie stock to loosen things up. Season nicely.

Now for the potatoes and peppers, cook for 5 minutes until softened, then add you tomato and cook until the tomato has broken down and formed a sauce like consistency. Then add your stock and stir, bring to the boil and cover. Cook for 20 minutes until the potatoes are very tender.

Pimiento, Noras and Potato Soup

Serve

Piping hot, topped with a handful of coriander, a splash of olive oil (a la Espana) and big cry of ‘Buen Provecho!’ My thing with soups is, not too hot! Firstly you’ll burn your poor mouth and secondly the flavours come out a little better when the soup has cooled a tad.

We Love It!

Even though we are not freezing and are wearing our shorts, we know this soup would hit the spot in our little wintery cottage back home in Wales. A lovely tangy soup with all the joys of a fiery chilly kick. Wicked winter warmer.

Foodie Fact

Paprika (or Pimenton) is a superb, bright red spice used in traditional Spanish cooking. There are several different types of Paprika; namely spicy, sweet, smoked or combinations of the above. Paprika is made from dried and ground red chillis, traditionally peppers were dried under the sun. One of the finest areas for Paprika in Spain is Murcia, the region that we call home.

Jane under Spanish skies, Puerto Mazzaron

Categories: Recipes, Soups, Vegan | Tags: food, healthy, murcia, paprika, pimiento, recipe, soup, spain, spanish, vegetarian, winter | 2 Comments

Kumato, Piquillo, Butter Bean and Coriander Salad

Posted on November 30, 2012 by leroy watson

Kumato, Avocado, Butter Bean and Piquillo Salad

A salad to light up any table with a wonderful combination of strong colours and sweet flavours. I know we always rave about our food, but we happen to like it! This salad is a combo of all the things we adore in food; beans, sweet things, crispy veg and a tangy dressing. It’s a hearty salad and ideal for a main course.

All ingredients are from the local market, grown by people who love their plants. I swear you can taste the difference!

Piquillos are something new for us, I have never fully appreciated their potential to tantalise. A proper taste explosion! There is such a wide range of flavours that can be experimented with when marinating. The process is the same with meat and veggies, peppers are ideal for the slow soaking process. Really getting the flavours in there and becoming nicely tender.

Piquillos are little red Spanish chilli peppers, which are spicy in a soft way. To make our marinated peppers, we roast them off first, get a little colour on them, and pop them in a jar and cover with olive oil and a drop of honey. Herbs and spices can be added, we like them nice and simple. Seal well and leave for a few days, longer if you can, and enjoy on all salads, sandwiches or served straight up as a nibble/ tapas treat.

Kumatos are a real star. A type of tomato grown in these Murcian parts, dark green (or called black by some!) and full of a vibrant sweet flavours. Very fruity indeed. I did not fully understand the wonder of tomatoes until I visited southern Spain. They grow all around this region, unfortunately mostly in longs bags in massive plastic covered farms. These beauties came from an old mans back garden and you can taste the love!

Salads like this deserve a decent plate to be served on, not stacked up in a bowl. This adds a little theatrical joy to the dining experience. Get your largest, finest plate and spread the gorgeous ingredients out in a haphazard, indulgent fashion.

I like to serve the salad with warm butter beans, it brings the flavours out even more. If you use warm beans, serve straight away, things can get limp.

Time for the assembly…..

Makes one large plate of salad, good for two as a main serving.

The Bits

5 medium kumatos (or the best tomatoes you can get your mits on), three large handfuls of chopped swiss chard, 2 cups of cooked butter beans, 1 cup chopped piquillos, 1 avocado (chopped into chunks), 1 handful of fresh coriander,

Dressing – 3 tbs great olive oil (or use the oil from the piquillos, even better), 2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice, sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Do It

Lay your chard out onto the plate and pop the rest of your bits evenly on top, leaving the coriander until last. Drizzle with a little dressing and keep some on the side for people who love their tang!

Kumato, Butter Bean, Coriander and Piquillo Salad

Serve

Centre stage maybe with some crusty bread and lashings of olive oil.

We Love It!

Rich and sweet, just like us (not!) A real gourmet salad treat.

Foodie Fact

Piquillos are traditionally grown in northern Spain and are full of vitamin C (comparable with a citrus fruit). They are also rich in many other vitamins and are generally served in Spain stuffed and roasted. They’re great stuffed with cream cheese and herbs.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: butterbean, food, healthy, kumato, piquillo, recipe, salad, spain, vegan, vegetarian | 1 Comment

Murcian Sweet Potato & Rosemary Burgers with Aubergine Buns

Posted on November 27, 2012 by leroy watson

Happy day at the Sunday market (with backpack full of good stuff), Puerto Mazzaron, Spain

Hola from Murca, Spain! We’ve moved here for a few months, following the sun!

It’s been a while beloved Beach Houser’s, too long, but we’re back with a bang and a massive burger treat. The search for the tastiest veggie burger is a quest to be taken very seriously. These are at the very least, a contender, with Aubergine for buns and a nice cheesy chilli kick.

Cracking burgers these with inspiration straight from the local markets of Puerto Mazzaron, Murica (a region known as the ‘garden of Spain’ or ‘veggie produce heaven’). It’s not hard to be inspired in Murcia, the air smells of rosemary and herbs with tomatoes, lemons and almonds growing freely all over the place.

The local Puerto Mazzaron Sunday market is full of old time geezers and their wives selling their wares, mostly out of the backs of dilapidated jollopy type vans. There is at least some organic produce here, but it’s never marked, we just pick the most misshapen, curly, funky looking varieties and this seems to work. The flavours are amazing, a humble pepper can fill me with so much joy.

Mazzaron market is a real feast for the senses and like all markets in the world, I feel in my element, free to sniff out the finest produce and really get to grips with a culture and place. The market is the beating heart of a town, the fact they are dying out is a huge shame. Food says alot about us and in Murcia they sell it whilst swigging cold beers, potent coffees and doughnuts dipped in thick hot chocolate all washed down with ham, ham and more ham. This can only mean more veggies for us. Buena Suerte!

We didn’t fancy any salt in these burgers, so the olives were a great local addition. Packing loads of flavour and decent hit of salty tanginess. The olive counter at the market is a large row of buckets with a mind boggling number of varieties. We love the fat little green manzanilla’s, the spicy gazpacho mix and the sweet red peppery ones. You can get olives anyway you like here, stuffed with lemon or even a whole chilli!

Jane on the mountain top behind our little casa – Isla Plana, Murcia.

Manchengo comes in various guises and I normally like the cured option, slightly saltier and harder, on the way to a pecorino. Jane opted for the semi-cured variety this time which was a real surprise. After munching much cheese in France, this Spanish stuff is really decent. Semi-cured manchengo is very creamy and light, perfect for a tasty burger, adding a load of richness. Add to that the local organic hot paprika, rosemary from the rambla (one of the dried river that runs below us) and the smells and flavours of Murcia are all here, in burger form!

Aubergine buns!? Why not. Tastier than bread and a healthier option. Feel free to pop them into a proper bun if you fancy. The only thing was, our burgers were way too big for our buns (never a bad thing), so we were forced to improvise and make it into something resembling an aubergine bruschetta.

These are burgers to crack out when you are in carnivore territory and you need something packed with flavour and filling. This is no flimsy veggie option, this is one for big eaters and lovers of rich food. Ideal for barbecues.

We have no internet in our casa, so we hope to connect again soon, but who knows!? Rest assured, we’ll be eating our way through the ‘garden of Spain’ and thinking of you all. Watch this space for more BHK Espana antics.

——————–

The Bits – For 4 big ones

1 medium sweet potato (cut into 1cm cubes), 1 ½ cup brown lentils, 1 yellow pepper, 3 cloves garlic, 1 aubergine (cut into 4 large wedges for the buns), 100g Vegan Parmesan Cheese (chopped fine), 20 plump green olives (mas o menos, chopped fine), 2 heaped teaspoons hot paprika (add ½ teas cayenne pepper if you don’t have hot paprika), 1 heaped teas Dijon mustard (when in Spain!), 2 teas balsamic vinegar, 2 teas fresh rosemary (chopped fine), lots of cracked black pepper, your favourite oil for frying (we used a nice sunflower)

Topping – Sweet Red Piquillos (red peppers, roasted and marinated in olive oil), thin slices of good tomato.

Do It

Cover your lentils with water, 1 inch above, add 3 bay leaves and a little sea salt, bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes until tender. Drain well (keep the juices for soup or stew. Yum!) and set aside.

Fry off your onions and pepper on medium heat in a good glug of oil until they are nice and golden, soft and sweet. Set aside, cover and wipe out pan with some kitchen paper.

Add your little cubes of sweet potato and cook briskly and stir well until soft and getting caremelised, 10 minutes more or less, add your garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, then add your onion mix and paprika, rosemary, pepper and mustard, cook for a few minutes on a low heat then add your chopped cheese and olives. Stir well and combine your 2 cups of cooked lentils. Set aside.

Pop the oven on, 200oC.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Get a masher and give the mix a thorough mash up. Some chunks are allowed, all adds to the texture. Grab a baking tray, get it oiled up (use some tin foil if you prefer), form large balls of the mix in your hands, it’s going to be sticky but that’s where the fun lies! They should be a real cupped handful per burger (you may need to lick your fingers afterwards, this is encouraged). Drop the balls in a neat(ish) fashion onto your tray, making four large balls.

Add your 4 hefty chunks of aubergine to the tray and drizzle/coat all with some nice oil. Your burgers need to be formed, use a spoon to push and level out your burgers, make them thick and roundish, use the curve of your hand here. You should be left four fat half pounders.

Top with a little cracker pepper and into then into the oven for 30 minutes (check them after 20 mins).

They may char slightly, the sweet potatoes caramelising, this is good and will be great for the flavour.

When handling the burgers take care, you need to have good spatula skills here. They may fall apart unless handled with love.

Serve

If your burgers fit in your aubergines (you have huge aubergines!) then make a classic burger, topped with some gorgeously piquant, sweet piquillos and a few slices of tomato and Parmesan. A green salad would be nice too.

We Love It!

Very, very tasty burgers. The cheese inside makes them really rich and the effort put into crafting them is well worth it. The roasted aubergines are a find, crisp and juicy, perfect with this sort of dense veggie burger.

Foodie Fact

Aubergine, Eggplant, Brinjal, whatever you want to call it, it tastes good and does you good. Aubergine is low calorie, high fibre, full of the vitamin B’s and some Brazilian scientists have said that it can help control blood cholesterol.

Categories: Dinner, Recipes | Tags: burger, food, healthy, lentil, manchengo, murcia, olive, puerto mazzaron, recipe, spain, sweet potato, travel, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Rasta Pasta Sauce

Posted on November 23, 2012 by leroy watson

Jane in the ‘Lemons’ kitchen

We’re down in Mazzarron, Murcia (Espana!) and having a ball, basically taking along break and getting down with the Spanish vibes (manana!). Lack of internet means little Beach House stuff, but we are getting a little more organised, so hope to be posting a few bits in the near future. The sun shining, the weather is sweet……yeahX

After a wander down the local fruit and veg market we headed back to the ‘Lemons’ (our little flat near the sea) along the beach full of inspiration and big bags of odd looking tomatoes. We came up with this gorgeous and simple rich-tasting pasta dish using aubergines and yellow peppers. We called it rasta pasta, you can take it easy, whip it up in minutes and spend more time in the sun with some good tunes.

Buen Provecho, JaneX

Getting things started, Aubergine and Peppers frying up

The Bits

1tbs cooking oil, half a large aubergine (chopped into 2cm cubes), 2 medium sized yellow peppers (chopped into 2cm cubes), 2 medium sized onions (chopped into 1cm cubes), 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely), 5 tomatoes, cracked black pepper, sea salt, 1tsp of mixed herbs, 1tbs balsamic vinegar, 1tsp runny honey (local por favor), fresh parsley, brown spaghetti (we liked).

Do It

Chop the aubergine into rough cubes and fry in oil on a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped peppers and keep cooking until everything is soft and roasted and smelling good. Put them in a bowl and cover.

In the same pan, fry the onions gently on a lower heat in a little more oil, for about 5 mins until soft. Then add the chopped garlic and cook gently so everything goes caramalised.

Chop up your tomatoes roughly, then add to the pan. We left the skins on. Pepper and salt to taste, add the mixed herbs, balsamic vinegar and honey and turn up the heat to medium. Stir everything around then cover and leave to reduce for 15 minutes until the sauce is perfectly thick and ready for the pasta.

Rasta pasta in the mix

Serve

We used brown spaghetti which was beautiful or whatever pasta you prefer. Mix all mixed together with a little splash more olive oil making it juicy and rich. Oh and a rather decadent side salad with avocados and sprouts.

What a feast!

RASTA PASTA

We Love It!

This dish is a wonder and has virtually no fat. It proves that the need for cheese with pasta is a myth and it has all the colours of reggae! Yippeee!

Foodie Fact

Aubergines are brilliant! Low in calories and rich in fibre, they are full of the vitamin B’s and are good for anti-oxidants.

Categories: Dinner, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Sauces, Vegan | Tags: cooking, food, healthy, pasta, rasta, recipes, sauce, spain, vegan | 6 Comments

Rainbow Kale and Tofu Sabzi (Beach House Basics)

Posted on October 10, 2012 by leroy watson

Rainbow Kale and Tofu Sabzi

“Simple is best.”

Sage advice and I managed to stick with it this time. This Sabzi is quick, super healthy and a staple at the BHK. All it takes is a little tofu, a scattering of seasonal veggies and a few sprinkles of fine spices.

Sabzi (pronounced ‘sabji’ or ‘chi’, my Hindi is not great) is a simple vegetable curry in India that is the cornerstone of most Indian meals. Sabzi, rice, chappatis, maybe some pickle and dahi (yoghurt), that is a hearty, balanced feast that can be enjoyed everywhere across India. It fuelled me daily and around 1 billion other folk on the sub continent for that matter.

Travelling in India is such a treat for all the senses, especially the belly sense. The smell of toasting chappatis and a bubbling sabzi is a truly magical thing. My best eating experiences in India were sat on the floor, on mats in communal canteens, eating by hand from a metal thali plate or banana leaf, steaming curries and daals served straight out of buckets.

This is a quick and easy Sabzi that I made a little heartier and healthier with the addition of the tofu, a substitute of sorts for paneer. Make sure you get the firm tofu, it comes in many different textures and the firmer the better for cooking. Silken tofu has a lower fat content and will just dissolve (but does make amazing tofu ice cream!)

Sabzi in India is prepared with what is growing locally and seasonally, the only way you can eat in most parts of the world, what you eat is where you are and for that reason, one of the wonderful things about travelling the world. Our choice of veggies here reflects this with some gorgeous local organic tomatoes (plucked from the farms poly-tunnel). The kale was yanked (lovingly) out of the Beach House garden, it’s actually doing quite well now winter is here!? I have alot to learn with plants! We are loving the cavolo nero cabbage that is available at the moment, it’s very dark green which can only be a good thing. It has a really full texture and strong flavour making it perfect for stews, soups and even smoothies.

Oops! I’ve managed to delete the rest of the photos from the camera but the dish is such a winner, I thought I’d share it anyway.

Serves four hungry sorts.

The Bits

1/2 block of firm tofu (chopped into cubes), 10 stems of kale (sliced), 6 stems of cabbage (like cavolo nero, long leafed is best, sliced), 1 stem celery (chopped), 1 courgette (cubed), 1 onion (chopped), 2 carrots (cubed), 4 tomatoes, 1 inch cube ginger (finely sliced), 4 cloves garlic (crushed), 2 teas turmeric, 1 teas gram masala, 1 teas chilli powder, 1/2 handful of methi leaves (curry leaves), 1/2 cup water, sea salt.

Do It

Add onion to the pan on a medium heat, get them nice and glassy, then add your ginger, spices and garlic, fry for a further 3 minutes. Add your courgette, tofu and carrot and fry for 3 minutes, then the methi leaves and the tomatoes and cook this mixture down a little (5 more minutes will do). The pan should be nice and hot, toss the kale and cabbage in along with the water, it should steam up nicely, put on a low the heat and pop a lid on the pan and leave to gently cook for 10 mins. Check seasoning and serve piping hot. This will keep very well overnight and may even be better for a good rest the next day.

Serve

With basmati rice (we used wholegrain) and some dahi (yoghurt), mango pickle if you have can. If you have time and the skills, make some fresh chapattis. This type of sabzi would normally be served out of a thali plate, a metal plate with compartments.

We Love It!

Eating Sabzi in Wales is a little like riding an elephant down Caernarfon high street, slightly incongruous yet very satisfying.

Foodie Fact

Tofu was discovered thousands of years ago in Japan, it is basically curdled soya bean milk. It boasts many health giving properties from a plant based food. Tofu is a brilliant source of protein and calcium. Soy protein can lower your chances of getting a dodgy ticker and has also been shown to help during menopause. Tofu is virtually fat free and contains many anti-oxidants and omega 3 fats.

In the absence of tofu photos, here I am with a cool car.

Categories: Curries, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: curry, food, healthy, india, nutrition, quick, rainbow kale, recipe, sabzi, tofu, vegetarian | 16 Comments

Trio of Simple Organic Summer Salads

Posted on August 27, 2012 by leroy watson

Aloe Vera Plant

Only naked and fresh veggies here! Food for the sun. When the produce is this good, you don’t want to mess with it too much. The flavours of these veggies are amazing, we are so privileged to live in an area with some serious vegetable growing heroes living close by.

We are getting veg from two local farms over the hill and have recently been picking up a veg box from another farm. We are suddenly inundated with incredible produce and can think of no better way of eating it than raw. Bring on the salads!

Local food is fresher and contains more nutrients due to this, we also like to support these amazing folk who are dedicated to the land. These salads are simple and contain only a few ingredients. Its what you’ll find us eating most days. Adding less ingredients to food makes the nutrients in food easier for the body to digest and use.

Our garden has taken a beating recently with the ‘summer’ storms, the wind is raging out there as I type these words. Leaves whizz by at right angles and the rocket is blown flat to the ground. The slugs have also had a field day out there, I can only hope they enjoyed what they ate. We have been harvesting some lovely red potatoes and a little rainbow chard, but really, the garden had been a steep learning curve this year. Next year, we are full of hope and fresh ideas to fortify our garden from these vicious Welsh elements. Having spoken to local farmers, it has been the worst growing season for 20 years, so a meagre crop is understandable. So we need some help!

Doing my best for the leeks

I’ve been working like a trooper of late, no time to cook food at the BHK. I needed plenty of shiny food and nutrition to keep me going and Jane has stepped in and has been making the most fantastic raw food delights. These salads, that we ate last night for dinner, were for me the pick of the bunch. Simple and tasty with a wonderful dressing.

I have a habit of throwing things together and letting a little bit of experience and my taste buds sort out the rest, Jane is brilliant at following recipes and measurements. This is important with some parts of cookery, namely baking and it would appear dressings. This dressing was perfectly balanced, with the warm edge of mustard and a good amount of honeyed sweetness.

Thinly sliced veggies

Thinly Sliced Veggies

Some may call this a ‘carpaccio’, but really it’s just a stunning way to serve veggies as a salad. Get your nicest plate out of the cupboard, some amazing veggies and slice thinly and arrange. Viola!

The Bits

We used our one each of our local organic farms courgette, beetroot, broccoli and a organic yellow pepper. Any combination of hard vegetables will do, if you are conscious of presentation, maybe mix up the colours a little.

Tomato and Basil Heaven

Tomato and Basil Heaven

For this you must have the finest tomatoes available. These red/green tomatoes came with our veggie box and completely blew us away. They grow in poly tunnels and god knows what else! They are insanely tasty and needed just a few torn basil leaves which are blooming on the windowsill and a splash of olive oil.

The Bits

2 handfuls of amazing tomatoes, meagre handful of torn basil leaves, a splash of great olive oil and sea salt and pepper if you must.

Carrots and Almonds

Carrots and Almonds

The sweetness of these carrots and almonds goes perfectly with the sweet mustard dressing.

The Bits

3 wonderful large carrots (scrubbed, not peeled), 1/3 head of broccoli (broken into little pieces, use the stalk and leaves), 1 handful of raw almonds, thinly sliced red onion and yellow pepper.

Sweet Mustard Dressing

Shake all ingredients together in an old jam jar, they are also handy to keep your dressing in afterwards.

The Bits

1 teas English Mustard, 2 teaspoons clear honey, 1 tbs lemon juice, 4 tablespoons rapeseed oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.

There is so little work in getting these together, we hardly need a ‘Do It’ section. More time to soak up some rays with your loved ones.

Serve

All veggies are best served at just under room temp, we used the dressing on the Carrot and Almonds and Thinly Sliced Veggies, the tomatoes needed no additions nonsense.

We Love It!

Magic veggies deserve to be eaten in all their glory i.e. naked and fresh!

Foodie Fact

Why buy organic/ local? Food loses nutrition when shipped and kept, so the more local fresh food you consume the better for you and your community in general. Organic veggies actually contain no more nutrients that conventionally grown, but they are clean and contain no pesticides (or poisons). Organic practices enrich the earth and by not using chemicals and GM techniques, ensure the fertility of the earth for future generations. Also, people who grow organically are normally lovely people to visit for tea!

Categories: Organic, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: dressing, food, healthy, local, organic, raw, salads, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian, why | 4 Comments

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher

Posted on August 21, 2012 by leroy watson

Sunset time at the Beach House

A real breakfast belly filler here. This is a great start to the day, maybe not the very best, but somewhere close! This is a bowl designed especially for those who have a busy/active time ahead. Maybe your a sheep farmer, or a trapeze artist, whatever your activity of choice, this bircher will give you full power! The sprouting bircher gives slow release energy that will keep you ticking over well beyond lunch, in fact, we find it lasts us until dinnertime! It’s a beast!

You will need to get sprouting here, or buy some in. The former is more enjoyable and much cheaper than the later. It would be a shame to exclude them. We are keen to get the world sprouting, we’d love to see windowsills full of mungs! Once you begin to sprout, you just cannot stop. We used sprouting buckwheat and wheat grains (called wheat berries in the States), both can be bought easily in most shops in the UK in a pre-sprouted state. They will definitely have them in your local health food shop.

Sprouting is great value and nutrition, the grains/pulses really bulk out and you get a good amount of sprouts from just a hand full of dried little things. Wheat grains make for brilliant sprouts, they are quick and abundant and have a nice sweet taste. Wheat grains are basically unprocessed wheat, Ideal if you are craving some bread or biscuits but want to stay super healthy (incidentally, these sprouts make a great loaf I’m told) .

We had this breakfast before a long walk in the hills and it was the perfect fuel to scale some craggy rocks and filthy bogs. Birchers are a real favourite of mine, basically a bowl of muesli, with yoghurt, given one big stir. Makes a change, a bit of a mash up.

The seeds and fruit can be played with here, whatever you have in the bowl and fridge really. We like to used flax seeds because they are great for the digestive system and sunflower seeds because the have amazing health properties and flavour. This recipe uses organic rolled oats, but you could use oat groats if you were eating raw.

Serves two hungry hikers/ workers

The Bits

1 cup of organic rolled oats (or oat groats), 1 banana (chopped), 1 apple (chopped, organic is definitely best here), 1/2 cup nuts (we use hazelnuts or almonds), 1/2 cup raisins, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 2 tbs golden flax seeds, 1/2 cup buckwheat sprouts, 1/2 cup wheat grain sprouts, 1 cup yoghurt (we use soya, whatever you prefer), 1 teas cinnamon.

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher – in the mix

Do It

Get out a nice big bowl, add all ingredients in no particular order and give it all a good and gentle stir. It should be well mixed when served.

Bircher post-mix, check out those funky sprouts!

Serve

As quick as you can, in spacious bowls, it does not keep so well.

Sweeties may like a little compote or honey on top of their bircher, but we think it is sweet enough.

Sprouted Wheat and Apple Bircher

We Love It!

This is a bowl of goodness that really sticks to the ribs and is packed with good energy and nutrients. It deserves to be fully fledged member of the ‘best way to start the day’ gang.

Foodie Fact

A serving of sprouted wheat grains contains your daily requirement of Manganese, which keeps your brain, metabolism and nerves in check. Good to know!

Here’s a sunshine morning tune: