Posts Tagged With: superfood

Griddled Ruby Grapefruit and Beetroot Salad with Toasted Cobnuts and Aronia Berry Dressing

Posted on September 15, 2015 by leroy watson

Chargrilled Ruby Grapefruit, Beetroot, and Cobnut Salad with Aronia Berry Dressing

We’ve had a real foodie time of it recently and this salad reflects that. Not only have I picked up some amazing produce at Ludlow and Beaumaris Food Festivals, but I have also been inspired by the chefs I’ve met. This is a salad that is caught between summer and autumn, quite apt in September. It’s also caught somewhere between a restaurant table and home kitchen. Do not fear, all of the these ingredients are easily interchangeable and there is only a few, quick, prep steps.

This dish is a looker and is something you could serve at dinner party and it would go down a treat. Its full of bold flavours and the Aronia berry vinegar really lights things up. Like all salads, its a perfect way of expressing gorgeous produce. We have made these portions main course size, but you could easily scale things down and serve as a starter.

Some of the special bits; cobnuts (from Ludlow), organic beetroots from Tyddyn Teg and Aronia Berry Vinegar

Some of the special bits; cobnuts (from Ludlow), organic beetroots from Tyddyn Teg Farm and Aronia Berry Vinegar

I think this is the best way to cook beetroots. Although my mind does change often. I also love charring citrus. Aine Carlin reminded me how cool charring citrus can be with this simple and delicious dessert recipe ‘Cashew Cream and Griddled Oranges’. Check it out on youtube. Aine’s new cookbook is out soon, which is very exciting news.

WHAT’S A COBNUT THEN?

Basically its a hazelnut. This is the perfect time of year to pick them up and when they are fresh and young, they are plump and have a light, creamy taste and a texture similar to coconut. They are lighter than a hazelnut when roasted and something that is well worth a try. Cobnuts were only introduced to the UK in the 19 th century and they are famously from Kent. In this salad they bring crunch and richness. Use them as you would use a hazelnut.

Cobnuts -de-shelled and soaked

ARONIA BERRIES

We met a lovely group of people at Beaumaris, Beri Da, who are growing Aronia berries in the next valley from us. Incredible to think that these things are happening so close and you miss them! We have tried a lot of food and nibbles over this weekend, but some really stand out. Beri Da is certainly one of them. Everything they produce is delicious and something a little different.

Beri Da is a small family ran business and you can read more about their story here. Aronia berries are like blueberries but more intense and packed with even more antioxidants and good stuff. They are native to North America but are increasingly being grown in the UK. They are thriving near Mount Snowdon and the guys have just planted even more bushes at the base of the mountain. A very scenic place for superfoods to grow!

The Aronia vinegar we bought is very intense, fruity and fragrant. A little goes a long way. We also have some chutney made with beetroot which is just too good to eat right now. We need to hide it away and dream about it for a while. Its fair to say that Aronia berries are going down well in the BHK. We are hoping to pop over and help with the next harvest, I’m not sure how many berries are going to make the basket!

These beetroots were so good looking, I love that crazy, deep purple.

I’m going to write more about the brilliant producers we met over the weekend in our next post. I’ll also let you know how our first cooking demo’s and book signings went at food festivals. We started at one of the biggest and surely one of the best, Ludlow. It was a blast!

VEGFEST 2015

If you haven’t voted in Vegfest 2015’s massive vegan poll, tututututututututttttt! There are loads of vegan products, authors, suppliers etc to be voted for. You’ll find ‘Peace & Parsnips’ in the ‘Best Vegan Cookbook’ catergory along with a host of other excellent plant based cookbooks. The Vegfest is like the vegan Oscar’s and we’ll be down there doing a cooking demo. Is going to be HUGE! Exciting stuff.

Lets get cooking……

Recipe Notes:

When frying the beetroots you can use any fruit vinegar, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry etc but all will be different. Some sweeter, some more potent. You just need to taste and adjust accordingly. For frying the beetroots you can also use balsamic vinegar and save your precious fruit vinegar for the dressing.

If you chargrill the grapefruit for too long, they will begin to fall apart. Keep it to roughly a minute each side, we’re just looking for a few nice griddle marks to add a smokiness to the citrus flavours. Its well worth the little extra hassle.

I have added avocado for a little bit of richness, but you could easily use cashew cheese or even well drained and marinated tofu.

Our Aronia berry vinegar is very potent, you may need to add more fruit vinegar to balance the dressing nicely. It should be quite tart with good acidity and a nice twist of sweetness.

The rapeseed oil we use here is good quality, single press, made like olive oil-type stuff. The flavour is sensational and we are loving Blodyn Aur or Bennett and Dunn. Both excellent and part of a new wave of quality rapeseed oil producers in the UK.

This recipe makes just enough dressing. Double the quantity if you’d like extra to be served on the table.

Nicely caramelised beetroots in Aronia berry vinegar – the smell was sensational!

The Bits – For 4
6 medium beetroots (scrubbed and trimmed)
1 small cucumber (peeled and cut in 1/2 moons)
1 ruby grapefruit (peeled and cut into 1cm slices across)
2 handfuls de-shelled cobnuts or hazelnuts (toasted)
8 big handfuls beetroot leaves or spinach/ chard leaves (finely sliced, chop the stems too and keep separate for garnish)
1 avocado (peeled and cut into small chunks)
2 radish (thinly sliced)
2 big handful basil leaves
1 tbs rapeseed oil
2 teas aronia berry vinegar or other fruit vinegar (balsamic will do)

Aronia Berry Dressing
2 teas aronia vinegar (or other fruit vinegar)
3 tbs rapeseed oil
1/2 lemon juice
Pinch salt

Do It
In a saucepan, cover the beetroots with water and add 1/2 teas salt, bring to a boil and lower to a simmer. Pop lid on and cook for 45 minutes. Remove the beetroots with a slotted spoon, keep the cooking broth to drink or use as a colourful stock. Pop the beets back in the pan and pop the lid back on.

Make the dressing by whisking everything together (with a fork if you like) in a small bowl.

Grab a griddle pan and very lightly oil, place on a high heat. When hot pop the grapefruit slices on. Leave to cook for a minute, they don’t take long. Flip them over using a thin spatula and cook for a minute on the other side. Now do the same with your cucumber slices. One minute each side. Set aside.

Peel the skin off the beetroots (you may like to wear clean marigolds or other plastic gloves for this job). Using a teaspoon helps to bring the skin away from the beet. Cut the beetroots in half lengthways and then each half into four even pieces. Warm the oil in a frying pan and fry the beetroots for 10 minutes, turning them regularly. You should get some nice colour on them. Add the vinegar and toss the beetroots to cover with vinegar, this will help them caramelise nicely. Cook for 2 minutes and they’re ready to go.

On large plates, scatter the leaves and top with grapefruit, cucumber, cobnuts, beetroots, avocado, sprinkle over the sliced beetroot roots, radish and basil, drizzle liberally with dressing.

Chargrilled Ruby Grapefruit, Beetroot and Cobnut Salad with Aronia Berry Dressing

Serve
Best served when the beetroots are still warm. We had ours with some steamed whole grains (millet, green lentils and buckwheat) tossed in a little lemon juice and rapeseed oil.

Foodie Fact

Nuts are good for you. Very good for you. Little nutritional powerhouses they are. Cobnut kernels contain 17% protein by dry weight, and about 15% fibre. Cobnuts are rich in vitamin E and calcium. They also contain vitamin B1 and B6. Not bad!

Our foodie weekend salad with all the trimmings

Categories: Autumn, Healthy Eating, Local food, Lunch, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: Aronia, cobnut, cooking, superfood, vegetarian, wales | Leave a comment

Quick Tempeh Stir Fry with Buckwheat Noodles, Rainbow Chard and Goji Berries (Gluten Free)

Posted on October 27, 2014 by leroy watson

Autumn in a bowl (if you live in the Beach House that is!)

IT’S TIME THE WORLD TRIED TEMPEH!

Here’s a mid-belter to get the taste buds zinging, full of the things we need with winter just around the bend. When the nights draw in (our clocks have just gone back in the UK which means it gets dark at around 4-5pm already!) we naturally turn to comfort foods rich in carbs to put some padding on for winter. Stir fries are the ideal way of avoiding really heavy, stodgy grub at this time of year and because the ingredients are cooked quickly, at high heat, they retain more of their health giving properties. The winter wok is a star and our bodies need a decent kick start to get us through this physically arduous time of year.

Stir fries are always and intense affair, its at the exciting, adrenaline rich end of the cooking spectrum. You need to be organised, with a very hot pan and trusty spatula at the ready. If you turn around to grab something, things can go horribly wrong! This one it ever-so easy to get together and wok, with the pleasing addition of a few superfood-stylee trimmings. Trust me, the name of this dish sounds far more complex than the cooking.

WHAT’S TEMPEH AND WHY?

Tempeh is so easy to prepare, highly fuss-free and packed with all the protein a vegan needs to sparkle. Soya is best kept wholebean and the thing I love about tempeh is you can actually see the beans (see below). Tempeh originated from the Indonesia area and is eaten extensively as a meat substitute, although it is surely appreciated for just being highly tasty (I prefer this approach). It is whole soya beans, packed together and partly fermented which leads to the health benfits of soya being accentuated. Our body can utilise its goodness more directly.

Tempeh is now relatively easy to track down in the UK and you can of course find it on line. I like to eat it regularly, normally as an alternative to tofu. It always seems like a treat when the tempeh is cracked open. You can buy it frozen in long logs in some Oriental shops/ supermarkets. The tempeh we use here was in ‘log’ form. You can steam this tempeh for 10 minutes to revitalise it before cooking. Frozen tempeh is alot drier than jarred tempeh (which is suspended in brine) so it will absorb much more marinade. Like most of these vegan, pulse based curd-like creations, it does need a nice, slow marinade to impart wonderful flavours. Tempeh and tofu are really just ridiculously nutritious launch pads for high charged flavour rockets!!!! I’ve gone for a straightforward marinade here and 30 minutes should do the trick, marinade wise, on a busy week night, although a couple of hours would be quite awesome.

Soba noodles are well up there in my noodle league. They have a firm texture and loads of nutritional perks. Just check the quantity of buckwheat to wheat if you’re keeping things low gluten. Pure buckwheat noodles are available, but ‘soba’ noodles are normally a mix.

AUTUMNAL ANTI-OXIDANT FIX

Are we all familiar with goji berries? They seem to have been a superfood for at least 3000 years now, originating somewhere in ancient China and always very highly regarded for their potent nutritional properties. Goji’s are the ideal autumn/ winter defence blanket for all kinds of cold/ flu invasions. Highly charged with anti-oxidants and happy chemicals, a handful of goji’s a day, keeps the snotty, coughy zombie man at bay. You can pick them up all over the place now and they are the perfect winter salad/ stew ‘sprinkle’ of choice. If you’re in the UK, try a rosehip as a more local substitute. They have very similar properties, but would have looked a little incongruous on a highly Oriental style stir fry!

We also have peppers in the mix, which are very (very), very high in vitamin C. One of the best sources in the vegetal world in fact. Then we have our friend rainbow chard which is a green and we all know what they do. Anything green and leafy is our bodies best friend, packed with vitamins and minerals (for more chard -based info – See the ‘Foodie Fact’ below).

If you are looking from serious detox properties from this wok wonder, I’d recommend taking it easier on the shoyu and mirin due to sodium and sugar (respectively) contents. Our kidneys and liver are never happy to see high levels of salt and sweetness.

A WORD ON COOKING CHARD

Chard contains some funky acids (oxalic acids), whilst not harmful, it is best to avoid them. Our bodies can absorb the goodness of chard easier when the acids are out of the way. The best way to do this it to steam or boil them for a few minutes. Do not use this cooking liquid for soups or stocks.

Last night, we fancied something like a chow mein style dish, low on sauce and high on noodles. To make this more of a soup, just add some shoyu/ tamari or miso to the water when cooking your noodles (taste the broth to decide how strong you like it) and serve ladled over the final dish.

The Bits – For 2

200g tempeh (cut into chunks, we like big ones, most people go for small 1 cm by 3cm oblong shapes)

1 tbs sunflower oil

1/2 teas toasted sesame oil

Marinade

3 teas tamari or good g.f. soya sauce (ie not heavily processed)

2 teas mirin or sake/ cream sherry with a pinch of sugar

1 1/2 teas sesame oil

4 large stems rainbow chard (finely sliced) – spinach, kale, savoy cabbage etc..any green leaf is cool

1 bell pepper (diced)

1 medium carrot (cut into thin batons, or sliced)

1/2 inch ginger (finely diced)

1 red chilli (if you like it hot)

175-200g gluten-free noodles

1 handful goji berries (soaked for 30 minutes in water)

1 tbs toasted sesame seeds

1 teas lemon juice

Quick Tempeh Stir Fry with Buckwheat Noodles, Rainbow Chard and Goji Berries

Do It

Marinade the tempeh, pour over the ingredients, cover and leave in a fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

I like to start with the noodles, bring 1 ltr of water to a boil and submerge the noodles whole (try not to break them up). Stir with a fork to keep the noodles seperated, adding a splash of oil if they start sticking. Cook them for a few minutes (follow what the packet says), drain them (or make a broth – see above) and pop them back into the warm pan. Shake the noodles gently to make sure they’re all happy and seperated, pop a lid on and set aside.

If you are a highly accomplished wok master you can start stir frying whilst the noodles are on their way.

Warm up a wok/ large frying pan and add 1/2 of the sunflower/ sesame oils, on a medium high heat, add the drained tamari and stir fry for 5 minutes, trying to get your chunks coloured on all sides. Gently play with them as not to break them up. Set aside and keep warm. I put a plate on to of the noodle pan and cover it with another plate, using the heat from the noodles to warm the tempeh!

During the entire stir frying process, the pan can get too hot and leading to burnt bits. Sprinkle a little water into the pan to avoid this, slightly lowering the temperature. Just a s sprinkle is enough, overdoing it will lead to limp veg.

Wipe the pan if it needs it and add the rest of the oil, on a high heat, add the carrots and ginger stir fry until softened, roughly a minute, then add the other veggies and keep stir frying until they are wilted, softened and delicious. Remember we want crunch and vitality with a stir fry, so slightly undercook the veggies (they continue to cook when you are preparing to serve). Add a splash of your marinade ingredients to the pan towards the end of cooking to add a little pizzazz, followed by a little lemon juice to cut through all that salty tamari-style behaviour.

Pour the veggies into the noodle pan and combine them nicely together.

Serve

Pour into warm shallow bowls and top with the tempeh and sprinkles of gojis and sesame seeds.

As an option – mix a little more of the marinade ingredients together and people can season their noodles as they like.

Foodie Fact

Chard is a member of the chenopod family, with beetroot, spinach and surprisingly, quinoa! It is native to the Mediterranean where it has been honoured for its medicinal properties since ancient times, Aristotle even wrote about it!

Chard is packed with phyto nutrients, in fact there are 13 different types of these beneficial chemicals in chard leaves. Abnormally high! They can help the heart and regulate blood sugar levels. Chard is also high in the betalians, like beetroot, the yellow stems have many more than the red and these wonder nutrients help us with detox, inflammation and are a powerful anti-oxidant. Chard boasts many health giving properties that aid the nervous system, especially the eyes (bags of vitamin A). High levels of vitamin K and magnesium mean that chard is also aids strong bones.

Green leafy foliage should make regular appearances on our plates if we are looking for optimum health with minimum fuss/ expense.

Categories: Autumn, Detox, gluten-free, Healing foods, Recipes | Tags: chard, gluten-free, nutrition, quick, stir fry, superfood, tempeh, vegan, vegetarian | 3 Comments

Quick Blackberry and Rowan Jelly Tart

Posted on September 8, 2014 by leroy watson

Quick Blackberry and Rowan Tart

Following on from the ‘Simple Blackberry Compote‘, we take the next reasonably logical step, the ‘Quick Blackberry Tart’. The Beach House is beginning to resemble mound of blackberries at the minute, our garden and the neighbouring horse fields are a sea of green with many purple patches. Forgive us for our bramble based indulgence, but they’re so tasty. It seems that horse muck is the ideal breeding ground for giant blackberries, although horse manure seems to benefit all plant life, our tomatoes definitely appreciate it. Even though our neighbouring horses are a little wild and aloof, we thank them for producing their fertile goods.

As with the compote, cooking rarely gets easier than this. Three ingredients and minimal fuss make this the perfect last minute/ lazy moment dessert. It is of course, greater than the sum of its parts and is one of those recipes that punches well above its weight (not sure if that analogy is particularly Beach House-ified!) I use frozen puff pastry for very obvious reasons, any brave soul who attempts to make their own puff pastry cannot be described as ‘lazy’ in anyway. Its quite a labour intensive process involving advanced folding and rolling techniques. I have made a type of parantha that is similar, but a parantha is a very forgiving format (like a fat flaky chappati). Puff pastry is something we have in the freezer and use when our folsk visit, they all seem to love a bit of crumbly dough. Dad is here at the minute and he approved of this tart, eating the leftovers for lunch which is not a bad sign.

The rowan jelly has been kicking around our fridge for a while and this tart is the perfect home for it. We have plenty of rowan berries and elderberries loitering around the Beach House and we are planning on a mass harvest very soon. Hopefully next year we’ll have homemade rowan berry jams to sample and probably whack in a cake/ tart.

There are so many differing ways that you can take this tart. The astringent rowan here works well with the sweet blackberries, our berries were very sweet and you may like to add a little more sweet jam/ jelly if you have a batch of more tart fruits. Once you’ve made the base, you choose the toppings. Something like a pizza desert. This recipe is simply what was to hand, seasonal and looking good. We’ve had it with apples and marmalade, strawberries and cashew cream, plums and star anise, pear and cinnamon, banana and custard……the list goes on. All of them simple and very quick to get together.

The pastry base is best blind baked, depending on the tart filling, the pastry may seem ever so slightly soggy in the very middle. It is cooked and is just a result of the liquid wetting the pastry and having something like a steaming effect. Think a Chinese dumpling as opposed to a pasty (like a Jamaican Pattie). The combination of soft middle and flaky outside only adds to the textural fun.

The Beach House Potato Patch (looking a little sorry for itself after a serious blight infestation, theres always next year!)

The Bits – For 4

250g block of puff pastry (frozen is much easier)

6 big handfuls of blackberries (or as needed)

4 tbs rowan jelly (or other fruit jam)

1-2 teas vegetable oil

Do It

On a lightly oiled surface, using a rolling pin, roll out your pastry in a roughly rectangular shape. Flipping it over a few times, whilst rolling, giving the pastry a good even thickness and light coating of oil.

Place on a baking parchment and give it another few rolls. Score a 1 inch border around the edge of the pastry by running the tip of a knife around. Cut roughly 1/2 way through the pastry with a sharp knife. Poke the base (not the border) a few times with a fork, this will lessen the rising.

Preheat an oven to 180oC and when warm, pop in the tart base bake for 12 minutes. Until lightly golden and well risen. Press the base of the tart down, leaving the border slightly raised. Spoon in and spread the jelly/ jam and scatter over a good layer of berries, packing them in tightly. Place back in the oven and bake for a further 15-20 minutes, until the border is dark and golden and the fruit is soft. Leave to cool for 10 minutes and serve warm. You know your oven, if its not a boss fan oven, then flip the tart around halfway through cooking to balance the bake.

The tart fresh out of the oven

Serve

Dad is here, we had custard!!! There is hardly any difference between normal custard and vegan custard, try making custard with almond milk, its extra yum!

Jane and Dad getting stuck in!

Foodie Fact

Rowan berries grow all over the UK and can be seen a mile off due to their vivid red colour. These berries have long been regarded as fantastic for health; they boost the immune system, help the digestive system, prevent certain cancers and reduce bacteria infections. They also make a very tasty jam.

These little red suckers are packed full of vitamin C and fibre and also contain a very powerful blend of antioxidants (aka disease fighters).

Do not eat rowan berries without cooking or freezing them for a decent period of time, they are quite toxic. They contain what is called parasorbic acid, which is no good, but when heated or frozen this acid transforms into sorbic acid, which the body loves. Rowan berries are technically a ‘superfood’ that lives on our doorstep. They can also make for a potent and eye popping liqueur! (Isn’t that what they call the best of both worlds!!!?)

Rowan berries are one of the many hedgrerow goodies that seem to be overlooked. I don’t think it will be long until many more folk are out there at this time of year, harvesting the bounty of fruits and leaves that are springing out of our hedgrerows, many boasting fabulous health giving properties and a diversity of flavours and textures.

Categories: Baking, Desserts, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: baking, blackberries, blackberry, dessert, foraging, quick and easy, rowan berries, superfood, tart, vegan, vegetarian | 5 Comments

Carrot Top Salad aka The Perfect Packed Lunch

Posted on September 25, 2012 by leroy watson

Carrot Top Salad

So what does a mostly raw food dude take to work for lunch? A carrot top salad of course! The most complete salad we can muster.

This Carrot Top Salad is a good example of my daily packed lunch, nice and quick to prepare and bursting with good textures and flavours. Its one of my favs. You may have noticed the distinct slow down in Beach House posting recently, I’ve been working like a donkey. I need all the energy I can get and this salad is a serious hit of nutrition, flavour and vitality. I feel fully charged after lunch and light as a feather. Non of those post lunch slumps with this salad.

To make this you need carrot tops. To find those you need to go get some real food, most supermarkets won’t sell carrots with the tops on and if they do, god knows where they’ve been and what the poor green things have been exposed to along the way. Go local and find some earth loving types, normally living in peace and happiness somewhere in the middle of a field and ask them which way to the carrots. It should’t take long.

Carrot tops are delicious and full of nutrients, especially chlorophyll. They can be a little bitter, thats the potassium, so at least you know its some good stuff. They make great juice and can even be crushed and used as a mouthwash. They contain a lot of vitamins etc not present in the carrot (like ‘K’ for example). They can be hard going and a little chewy on their own, thats why they are best in this salad. They’re not as sweet as the ‘root’, thats where all the sugar and water goes. So much food is thrown away nowadays and much of these we can re-use or munch on. Please, give these little green beauts a chance!

Glorious local toms

To the salad….I basically combined the fruits, veg and seeds available into a massive salad, stick it in a container and have a jam jar full of dressing (that lasts a few days). I make enough salad for at least two days (excluding the apple, normally added in the morning) and hey presto! LUNCH.

This is a huge salad by general standards, alot goes into it and it’s designed to be a hearty meal. The Carrot Top definitely cannot be termed as a ‘side salad’, this is the main attraction. A word of warning, this takes quite a bit of munching. You need to build up some decent jaw muscles to attempt such a salad.

There are constants in my salad world; dark green leaves make up the majority of it, lots of hard vegetables cubed (for crunch), seeds (lots)and the occasional dried fruit makes an appearance and also a nice easy, tangy dressing. Then that’s me off, for another day in the office/ kitchen/ restaurant/ field/ bridge tunnel or wherever else the money lies!

We have decided to head off to Spain for a few months over the winter months and all the pennies are needed for time in the beautiful Mediterranean sun. Expect some real bright beach posts soon, until that time comes in mid October, its work and salad time for me.

Just for your information, I also scoff two pieces of fruit and a bowlful of nuts and seeds all washed down with a cup of green tea and lots of water. You’ll be glowing afterwards, safe in the knowledge that this lunch time you were very kind to your body.

The only reason we can eat like this is due to Jane and I’s passion for healthy foods. We have buckets of fine pulses and seeds filling up our kitchen. We buy all this stuff in bulk normally and have it to hand. We are lucky. If we are not at home, travelling around etc, it can be tough to get anything like the real ‘Carrot Top’ together.

Kale takes a bath

This makes two large pots of salad, good for two lunches at least.

The Bits

Salad – 1 apple (or pear), 2 carrot, 1/2 cucumber (pickled or not, I like either), 1 courgette, 1 beetroot (all cubed), 2 handfuls of carrot tops (finely chopped), 2 big handfuls of beetroot leaves or green cabbage or kale (chopped), 1/2 handful of raisins, 1/2 handful of pumpkin seeds, 1/2 handful of sunflower seeds, 1 handful of mung bean sprouts, 1/2 handful of chopped mint leaves, 1/2 handful of chives, 2 teas barley powder/spirulina (optional, specialist things from health food shops that are full of zing), handful of cherry tomatoes (whole)

Beetroots on the board

Dressing – Juice and zest of half a lemon, 1/3 cup good olive oil, 1 teas honey, 1 clove garlic (minced), sea salt, cracked pepper. Or just make a whole jam jar full and shake it up when you need it. I normally carry it around in my bag. If you friends laugh at you for carrying dressing around with you, they obviously don’t understand the importance of salad.

Do It

Gather all you ingredients in your largest salad bowl and get you hands in there, give it all a good mix up. Separate into your containers and pop the lids on and into the fridge. You are now well lunch’d up and ready to go.

Packed up and ready to go.

Serve

After a good mornings graft, eat with a large spoon and be happy in your munching.

We Love It!

Turning something that many would deem as waste into a tasty dish is just grand. We love the crunch and texture of these salads, each mouthful is different.

Foodie Fact

Carrot tops can also be made into a brilliant tea, great for purifying the blood and kidneys. They also used to be used as a fashion accessory:

“In the reign of James I, (1603) it became the fashion for ladies to use flowers, fruit, feathers and the like to decorate their clothes. Picture showing carrot leaves in a hat This was amusingly extended to the use of Wild Carrot flowers and its feathery leaves and stalks to decorate their hair, hats, sleeves, dresses and coats. The lacy green foliage was especially fashionable during the autumn months when the leaves took on a reddish coloration.”

For more carrot facts like this, visit The World Carrot Museum

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: carrot top, cherry tomato, food, kale, packed, packed lunch, raw, recipe, salad, superfood, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Raw Asian Buckwheat Stew

Posted on June 16, 2012 by leroy watson

Sprouting Buckwheat

This is not exactly Asian, not your average back street Shanghai fare; we lack some ingredients but do our best in the hills of Wales! This recipe boasts all the flavours you would expect from a classic Asian dish, with the raw touch of sprouting buckwheat and the richness of cashews. It really is a revelation that this food tastes so good cold and is so satisfying. Who knew?

We live quite remote, the nearest decent shop being 30 mins drive. For a cramped island like ours, 30 mins is quite a distance. If you can believe it, there are no fresh fruit and veg markets in the entire area. It is strange, we are quite unique. We therefore use what we have locally, there is a shed over the hill that sells the occasional organic vegetable, at this time of year, local produce for sale is quite sparse. Hence we make do and blend!

We have been missing our Thai curries, stir fries etc, so this was my attempt at adding a new set of flavours to this Beach House raw June. I like adding cucumber to dishes, it freshens and lifts things.

These recipes are known as ‘living food’ due to the sprouting going on. Anything sprouting is full of life and nutrients and is serious super fuel for your body (and mind/well-being…..).

Sprouting buckwheat has a lovely bite to it and reminds me of a fuller quinoa in flavour. It tastes and looks like a grain, but is gluten and wheat free. It can also be blended up into a lovely porridge (more of this to come). Buckwheat sprouts well and only takes a couple of days. The technique is simple enough, soak for 24 hours in fresh water, drain and wash, leave for 24 hours, drain and wash etc. Until sprouts begin to appear. It is then ready to eat.

This stew has a lovely rich feel and is very satisfying, which you need on the grey island (Britain) were it is currently summer/winter in just one day. The storms may rage outside, yet we are warm inside and dreaming of the East….

The Bits

Veg – 1 large tomato, 1 small onion, 1/3 cucumber, 1 carrot, 1/2 red chilli (check for heat)

Sauce – 2 cloves garlic, 2 inch cube of ginger, juice of 1 lime (finely chopped zest if you like a real tang), 2 teas honey, 3 tsp sesame oil, 2 tbs tamari (or light soya sauce)

Stew – 2 cups sprouting buckwheat, 1/2 cup whole cashews,

Topping – 1 1/2 cups chopped green beans, 2 teas sesame seeds, handful of broken cashews

Mid blitz aka carnage

Do It

Add all veg and sauce bits to the blender blend to a fine salsa like mix, taste check for balance of flavours, then add your stew bits and pulse a few times to break up the buckwheat and cashews slightly. Not too much, you need a little bite there. Chop up your greenbeans and scatter on top in any fashion that takes your fancy (we normally mix half into the stew).

Serve

Finish with a few sprinkles of sesame seeds (we were out of stock here) and some broken cashews.

Raw Asian Buckwheat Stew

We Love It!

This beats a sloppy Chinese takeaway any day of the week! Bursting with vitality and nutrients, this is one of our favourite raw recipes thus far.

Foodie Fact

Buckwheat is one of the most complete grains globally and contains all eight essential amino acids (meaning you can basically live on it!). It is great for diabetics as an alternative to sugary wheat and also alkalizes the blood. Buckwheat even boosts the brain, it contains high levels of lecthin and 28% of the brain is made of lecthin which also purifies the blood and actually soaks up bad cholesterol. Wonder food!

Categories: Detox, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Low G.I. (glycemic index), Lunch, Nutrition, Raw Food, Recipes, Superfoods, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: amino acids, asian dressing, asian food, blender, blending, blood purifier, brain boosting food, buckwheat, cashew nuts, chinese food, essential, food, food photography, living food, nutrients, organic vegetable, quinoa, raw, raw food, raw stew, raw vegan, recipes, shanghai, sprouting buckwheat, stew, superfood, superfoods, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian | 4 Comments

Sava’s Elephant Garlic Flower Salad

Posted on June 7, 2012 by leroy watson

Sava’s last lunch at the BHK

Here was this lunch offering, made by Jane and Sava. A crunchy wonder, with bucket loads of veggies, topped with the ever intriguing, elephant garlic flowers.

This was Savannah’s last meal with us and we wanted it to be special. We rustled up a few different salads, dips and even a piquant beige guacamole.

Sava is originally from South London, but is currently masterminding world domination (Sava style) which means spreading love, happiness and vibrant energy to all corners of the world. Sava is also an ace vegan chef and was the perfect house guest during this raw time at the Beach House. We have spent most of our time sitting around talking about food and travel, two of our most favourite chat topics. Its been a gas….

Sava has an brilliant travel website, all about travelling the world and living your wildest dreams. Its called travel butterfly. Sava has just returned from travelling around Central and Southern America and there are loads of wonderful tales, images and tips to be found there.

These garlic flowers have thick stems with a potent garlic punch (the whole house stank of garlic after chopping a few up). The flowers seem edible, with small yellow petals. One bunch has lasted us quite a few days as its best used sparingly. Warning, if you are worried about garlic breath, do not approach these flowers (and stop worrying).

You may like to add some spirulina, wheat grass or barley grass powder to the topping if you are raw, or even if you aren’t, this would give you a serious boost. These are three heavyweight contenders of the superfood world. It is said that you can live on these green powders (the barley grass actually tastes of dried fish) but not even I will venture this far down the road of cleaning my internals up. The barley powder we have is labelled as a ‘powerful’ food and should be eased into, you wouldn’t want to over do it (this all seems very tame compared to my tequila slammer days, but unimaginably healthier!).

These salads are always super easy to get together, we’ve made them per person so you can just have it yourself, or share with the people you really, really like. This is a big salad and designed to be a main meal so there is a lot of ingredients in it. We realise this goes against some of our ‘The Big Four Raw Food No No’s’ but we are trying to be good! We topped it with the elephant garlic flowers so we could measure the amount we ate with eat spoonful, it also looked great.

Elephant garlic flowers

The Bits

Per person – Handful of baby corn, 1 carrot (chopped), handful of mangetout, 1 ripe tomato, 1/2 courgette (chopped), 1/2 apple (green and sour is best, chopped), 1 stick of celery, handful of cucumber (chopped), handful of cos lettuce (chopped), 2 teas linseeds, 1 handful of mung bean sprouts, 2 teas alfalfa sprouts.

Topping – Handful of elephant garlic flower (chopped), handful of sunflower seeds, splash of olive oil.

Elephant Garlic Flower Salad

Serve

Layered with a creamy Miso, Tamari and Tahini Dressing, topped with the chopped elephant garlic flowers.

We Love It!

Mainly because Sava made it and she is very lovely indeed. The elephant garlic is amazing and well worth seeking out, it explodes in your mouth and adds a spot of romance to the plate.

Foodie Fact

Native Americans believe wild garlic to help against ailments such as high blood pressure, asthma and scurvy.

Our Morning Juice Routine

Is stuttering along. We are still getting into the routine of a mid-morning juice. I used to have a nice jug of coffee, now its a yogurt pot full of fresh juice. I know which one my body prefers (bit sometimes I miss that aroma).

Jane made a magic juice this morning with the trusty Magimix. Simple and not really worth a separate post, its similar to a couple we have done before. It was a zesty Apple, Carrot and Ginger. The perfect balance of sweetness with a kick of ginger. Here is Jane mid juice:

Jane making morning juice

We aim to be drinking at least one juice per day and are finding that we are not hungry in the mornings. This would make sense, all of our nutritional requirements are being met, so the absorption cycle of the body doesn’t really kick in until 12pm. That’s when we whip out the salads.

We plan on getting a 25 kilo bag of carrots from a farm down the road and really getting juicy next week. Apparently, if you drink too much carrot juice, you actually turn orange. Watch this space, will make for interesting pictures I’m sure.

Happy days aheadX

Categories: Breakfast, Friends of B.H.K, Healthy Eating, Nutrition, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Sauces, Side Dish, Superfoods, Vegan | Tags: ailments, apple, asthma, barley grass powder, barley powder, carrot, cook, corn, elephant garlic, flax seeds, flowers, food, garlic breath, ginger, global, guest, happiness, healthy eating, healthy living, heart disease, high energy, juicer, juicing, linseeds, low fat, magimix, miso, native american, potent garlic, raw, raw food, raw vegan, recipes, remedy, salad, spirulina, sprouts, sunflower, superfood, superfoods, tahini, tamari, travel, travel butterfly, vega chef, vegan, vegetarian, wheat grass | 1 Comment

Why are we raw this June!

Posted on May 31, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw June is here for the Beach House. Jane and I are going cold veggie (and fruit) for the entire month and we both cannot wait to get going.

It really has come around quickly this 100% raw/vegan June adventure. We have both been working quite a bit lately and have had less time to plan for the big plunge than we would have liked, hence the lack of any ‘build-up’ posts. As with most things, we’re going straight in there!

I have a strange excitement in the pit of my stomach and I don’t know why. I know that I will feel alot better and have bags more energy, focus and vitality, but there is the feeling that this could be something very big in my life. It could be a huge lifestyle change for the better, no matter how unconventional it is and no matter how many people call me a ‘weirdo’ (there have been quite a few already) I going for this new diet and looking forward to experimenting with my body and mind in a good way. We are what we eat, well, we shall see.

The main reason for eating raw is that cooking kills nutrients in food. Vitamin C and B are heat sensitive, enzymes are also destroyed when food is cooked, which are essential to the function of the body. If enzymes are not replenished in the body, we can age quickly and loss health. Raw foods have been used for years to treat ailments and illness, most famously by Dr Ann Wigmore,who set up the Hippocrates Health Institute. The truth is that we are exposed to more pollutants than previous generations and our food has less nutrients, even organic food is grown on soil that is less rich than is was in previous times (normally due to bad farming techniques).

Ecologically, if we all ate more raw foods there would be a relief on the planets resources. No cooking conserves energy, there is less packaging (hopefully non) with raw foods, there are no emissions created no processing, the waste is compostable and biodegradable, meaning no rubbish.

Below is the Raw Food Pyramid (thanks to the Almost Raw Vegan for this), this replaces the average diet with meat, dairy etc and will give you an idea of what we will be munching on in June. We are eating no dairy, refined foods, wheat etc and no alcohol or caffeine. Our diet will consist of many different types of salads, smoothies and juices and another host of interesting raw foods that you will seldom find, especially in the UK where raw food is still a relatively new thing. In the States and Australia for example, raw food seems to be very popular. Many people say that raw food will become the new vegetarianism for this generation, I have already seen restaurants with raw options on the menu.

We have always eaten alot of raw food, we just didn’t necessarily call it ‘raw’, just a salad or a smoothie. We will try and be as close to 100% raw as possible, but aren’t really too fussy about things. We’ll still be drinking herbal teas and if our new lovely looking olive oil is not certified raw, we’ll still use it. The same goes for nuts, seeds, dried fruits, pastes etc which are all borderline raw foods. We love these items too much and deem their nutritional values to be too important to eliminate from our diet.

We hope to open a few people’s eyes, minds and palates to the joys of raw food. Raw food is nutrient rich, meaning you don’t need to eat or digest as much. When you are eating a bag of crisps, or packet of biscuits, the reason you are not getting full is because they are devoid of nutrients. Your body needs the right fuel! A raw diet puts that fuel in and makes it readily available. We have had a few days almost raw already and the we have been buzzing! I went for my normal jog and needed to extend it a little, up the mountain. I couldn’t stop! With raw food, your body needs less energy for digestion, which can be utilised in other beneficial ways.

The body has clearly define cycles or natural rhythms:

12pm-8pm Digestion cycle

8pm-4am Absorption cycle

4am – 12pm Elimination cycle

The raw diet will help to cleanse our system of toxins and bring us into balance. After gradually eating healthier for a number of years (we are not just diving in here, we have been eating well for a while now) my body is quite sensitive to toxins and rich foods. I sometimes get what is called a food ‘hangover’ after a cheese or chocolate binge, I will be glad to be free of them. Raw food is devoid of toxins and packed with nutrients. There is a popular raw slogan, ‘stop counting calories and start counting nutrients’. It makes perfect sense to me that what we eat has a profound effect on our bodies and minds. What we consume affects us on ways that we cannot see or know. Raw food seems like a stepping stone for me to a greater understanding of my body and what makes me tick, what makes me truly happy.

Raw food will also free up so much time, as I mentioned we are both busy this summer with work, so not cooking will allow us to do other things. The garden is definitely looking like it needs some TLC.

We will be taking alot of inspiration from our fellow bloggers of the cyber world and also have some good books. ‘Eat Smart, Eat Raw’ by Kate Wood being one of the main ones. Written by a Brit for British folk, mainly important because we don’t have the plethora of fruits and veggies that many countries enjoy. We also have the long cold, dark winters, where soup is our best friend and a chilled smoothie seems like a difficult proposition.

We will be supplementing our diets with a few superfood-type bits. Jane picked up some Barley Grass at the health food shop and that is supposed to be super charged stuff. We will also be drinking propolis daily, which is a bee resin with amazing properties. We’ll be writing about it soon. We will also be sure to drink plenty of water, as this seems to be important no matter what foods you are eating. Become more fluid! It is worth noting that many mineral waters are not organic and the best water you can drink is water that has been treated by reverse osmosis, this is pure H2O. You should also not drink water, or any liquid with meals, as it affects digestion and absorption (diluting stomach acids).

So we are going out in a blaze of intoxication tonight. We said we wouldn’t, but we are. It is a relatively decadent evening with some smoked stilton with sparkling wine planned, followed by some of the finest chocolate I have ever tasted (post coming soon..).

Raw June, a time when we in the Beach House gain a greater awareness and respect for the foods we eat and the bodies we inhabit; a time when we gain a new insight into the world of nutrition and the impact it has on us.

Jane and I are both very positive about all of this, which we feel is crucial, as our mental state has a more profound effect on our health than anything else.

Happy Days!