Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

In the early 1990's, I took a few vegetarian cooking classes through Sanitarium and was delighted to find this vegetarian version of a favourite food. I have made this recipe a number of times over the years, because it is an easy choice when vegetarian friends are visiting and the rolls taste just like the real thing bought from a bakery.

Being a Thermomix fan, of course I converted Sanitarium’s Country Cottage Rolls recipe from their 1994 recipe brochure, and with a few minor modifications, the recipe is available on their webpage below.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• ½ cup pecans
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 slice bread broken into bite-size pieces and dried in the oven on the lowest setting – should supply about ½ cup dry breadcrumbs
• 1 cup quick cooking or rolled oats
• 3 sheets reduced-fat canola puff pastry
• 1 tablespoon milk for glazing
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)

Method

1 Process bread pieces, oats and pecans on speed 6 for 10 seconds. Set aside in a bowl.

2 Process eggs, onion, soy sauce and cottage cheese on speed 6 for 10 seconds. Add to bowl with dry ingredients and mix.

3 Cut each pastry sheet in half and spoon mixture along one edge. Brush other edge with soymilk. Roll to enclose filling with pastry and repeat with remaining pastry sheets. 

4 Cut each log into 6 even lengths. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in a hot oven, 200°C, for 40 minutes or until crisp and golden.

Sanitarium's Country Cottage Rolls recipe:-

http://www.sanitarium.com.au/recipes/country-cottage-rolls

These rolls go very nicely with a Thermomix version of Heinz's tomato sauce which can be found here:-
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=10013.0

Beetroot and Chocolate Mini Muffins

Beetroot is so versatile. I first grew to love boiled beetroot in a salad. No vinegar was needed. I even pilched it from the container in the fridge as a tasty treat.

Once my Thermomix arrived, I found new ways to enjoy this vegetable: as a pudding with chocolate both cooked and raw, as hummus, and even served to me as coleslaw.

My latest version is beetroot and chocolate mini muffins achieved with minor tweaks to my simplified mini muffins recipe as below. Another difference in this recipe is that I now use spelt flour in my muffin recipes. Of course, the type of flour used is a personal choice.

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup spelt flour

1 1/3 tsp cream of tartar with 2/3 tsp baking soda

1 tsp mixed spice

3 tbsp sugar

--- The above ingredients can be stored together in a container in the fridge for days or weeks before you need them. If you prefer to sift the flour, cream of tartar and baking soda then do this before adding the mixed spice and sugar.

1 1/2 cups combination of beetroot chopped, chocolate pieces and orange zest

1 egg

3 tbsp olive oil

5/8 cup orange juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease mini muffin tray(s) – one large tray for 24 mini muffins or two smaller trays for 12 mini muffins each. 

Process beetroot, chocolate and orange zest in Thermomix on speed 5 for a few seconds.

Sift flour, cream of tartar and baking soda into a separate bowl. Mix in all other ingredients until combined. 

Spoon mixture into the muffin pans

Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through. In a non-fan forced oven turn the muffin trays around in the oven after 7 or 8 minutes. Cool in pan(s) for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a plate or wire rack.

I just can’t get enough of the beetroot and chocolate combination. If I have over calculated the beetroot and chocolate quantities, it’s not a problem. The resulting mix makes a tasty dessert in its own right.

Carob Fudge

I have just made my last batch of Raw Shortbread. While I have enjoyed eating these sweet balls, I am not sure that I’ll buy any more lucuma powder after paying more than $20 for 250 grams in 2009. So it’s just as well that I have some carob powder languishing in my pantry which has combined with the leftover almond meal to make balls tasting just like fudge.Since making the raw shortbread was such a breeze, I used a similar approach for the carob fudge. 

Recipe ingredients:
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tbsp carob powder heaped
2 tbsp honey

Instructions:
Blend in the Thermomix on speed 6 for 30 seconds.

As the time reached the 30 second mark there was a distinct change in the sound of the blades processing the mix which indicated that the mixture was close to being ready. The sound comes from the mix starting to clump together. To test the mix I tried forming a ball from a small handful which worked perfectly.   

In the past I have ground up any nuts required for sweet treat recipes. While I am still happy to do this, I was able to buy some ground almond meal at my local Flannery’s and have enjoyed making both the raw shortbread and almond fudge with fewer steps.

I have always had a sweet tooth which is sometimes satisfied by purchased health bars. In the past week reaching into the fridge for a raw shortbread ball a few times during the day has hit the mark. Each ball has a rich enough taste for me to only want one at each sitting. I’m hoping this new habit will stick around.

Rhubarb!

I had a new dilemma to solve when some rhubarb arrived in my Food Connect box as I haven’t had any contact with rhubarb apart from possibly eating some in a restaurant dessert.

But first I wanted to know what I could call it – a fruit or a vegetable - and it appears that I’m not alone in my confusion. Wikipedia tells me that rhubarb is normally considered to be a vegetable, except in the United States which counts it as a fruit for regulation and duties purposes.

Next I wondered if it could be eaten raw and an online search brought up the perfect solution. I varied the recipe a little to suit the Thermomix.

Recipe ingredients:
275g rhubarb
100g honey
50g sultanas

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in the Thermomix on speed 5 for a few seconds.

The tart flavour came through in my taste test just after making it. However the taste mellowed as I sampled the mix and after two days it was delicious. I’ll certainly repeat this performance next time some rhubarb arrives in my home.

Fairy Floss?

No, not really. But it was pretty enough for me to think of that delicious sweet treat that I missed this year by not going to the Ekka. I understand it was definitely there at the I Love Fairy Floss stand, or so Google tells me.

Well, my little treat might be a different colour but it has the right consistency and even better lacks the sugar. After a hearty lunch today, it was just the right meal to finish the day, and so I got to eat my sweet treat!

Recipe ingredients:
200g cabbage
110g apple peeled
200g water

Instructions:
Blend all ingredients in the Thermomix on speed 8 for 20 seconds. 

PS And for anyone wondering...  This soup provided 100 calories, which was fortunate considering the meal that preceded it.

Chia Seed Gel

Sprouted seeds or legumes are often recommended as a healthy item on our plates. Soaking removes the enzyme inhibitors that would otherwise nullify some of the enzymes produced in our bodies. 

An alternative to sprouting is to make chia seed gel. Chia seeds are touted as a superfood which can be cooked, sprouted or made up into a gel. I like making the gel because it's easy to prepare and can last in my fridge for a week or more.

Recipe ingredients:
1 tbsp chia seeds
3/4 cup water

Instructions:
Mix the chia seeds and water in a container. 
The mix needs to be stirred for a few minutes to ensure the seeds don't clump together. 
Then the lid goes on and into the fridge.

The raw food movement recommends eating "live" food because the enzymes in the food are more readily available. Including chia seed gel in our meals is an easy way to get this benefit.

Simplified Mini Muffins

I’ve made muffins, pikelets, waffles and bread, and the enduring habit seems to be making mini muffins.  My mother has always been a fan and has even started making her own. 

My favourite version of this recipe is Sultana Mini Muffins, but in the past sultanas have easily been replaced by coconut, carrot, banana, pumpkin, or any other item that takes your fancy and feels like it would work within a mini muffin recipe! I suspect the variations are limited only by one’s imagination…

I use rye flour because I seem to have developed intolerance to wheat flour but have not yet been diagnosed as celiac. If self-raising flour is your preference, then don’t include the cream of tartar and baking soda.

Sultana Mini Muffins

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Makes 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup rye flour

1 1/3 tsp cream of tartar with 2/3 tsp baking soda

1 tsp mixed spice

3 tbsp sugar

--- The above ingredients can be stored together in a container in the fridge for days or weeks before you need them. If you prefer to sift the flour, cream of tartar and baking soda then do this before adding the mixed spice and sugar.

¾ cup sultanas - or other filling of choice: desiccated coconut, grated carrot, banana or cooked pumpkin etc…

1 egg

3 tbsp olive oil

5/8 cup water

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease mini muffin tray(s) – one large tray for 24 mini muffins or two smaller trays for 12 mini muffins each. 

Sift flour, cream of tartar and baking soda into a bowl. Mix in all other ingredients until combined. 

Spoon mixture into the muffin pans

Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked through. In a non-fan forced oven turn the muffin trays around in the oven after 7 or 8 minutes. Cool in pan(s) for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a plate or wire rack.

This recipe works well for mini muffins and would most likely work (with 25 minutes cooking time) for a 12 muffin tray as well.

Mushroom Chicken Cacciatore a la Thermomix

I enjoyed the Mushroom and Chicken Cacciatore meal so much that I have just made a modified version in the Thermomix. The original recipe appeared in Courier Mail's Q-Weekend magazine. 

The condiments below don’t include salt as the Thermomix stock concentrate already has salt in it. I’ve worked out that I can store my stock concentrate in a pyrex container in the freezer as I can easily scoop some out on a spoon. I have previously found that frozen jam can be scooped out in the same way if it is made with equal quantities of fruit and sugar. It looks like stock concentrate made with a significant amount of salt has the same properties.  

It tasted lovely even though the tomatoes lost their form and became part of the stock. Next time I’ll reduce the number of tomatoes and increase the amount of zucchini or capsicum. The rest of the stew ended up in the freezer with the meals being much more stock than chicken and mushroom. But that’s fine. I’ll enjoy eating it and won’t mind using a spoon to lap up the last few mouthfuls.  

I have just read the Thermomix forum and found a recipe for Chicken Cacciatore along with some great suggestions on how to reduce the resulting liquid.  Next time I'll try cooking the meal on Varoma temperature and steaming vegetables in the Varoma basket.I'll choose the vegetables carefully as 15 minutes cooking time seemed perfect with this meal and some vegetables require a longer steaming time. Probably vegetables that can be eaten raw like pumpkin, carrots, broccoli or cauliflower would be best.   

Recipe ingredients:

1 clove garlic

1 onion peeled and quartered

Olive oil 30g

300g chicken thighs diced

120g mushrooms diced

3 roma tomatoes chopped

1 zucchini diced

200ml water with 1 tsp Thermomix stock concentrate

Condiments to suit :  pepper, herbs eg oregano, rosemary or dried Italian herbs
Optional: Diced vegetables for steaming eg  pumpkin, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower

Preparation:

Chop garlic and onion in Thermomix bowl for 5 seconds on speed 7

Add oil and sauté for 3 minutes at 100 deg C on speed 1

Add remaining ingredients and position the Varoma basket on top if vegetables are being steamed. Cook for 15 minutes at 100 deg C or Varoma temperature (if veggies are being steamed) on Reverse speed soft.

Raw Hummus

 

Hummus is always a pleasant addition to a nibble or a meal. This raw version based on a recipe from the book “12 Steps to Raw Foods” by Victoria Boutenko can make a nice side dish or stand as a meal on its own. It is deceptively simple to make and perfect as summer takes hold.

My first attempts to sprout chick peas always ended in failure. But then I was set straight at a demonstration by  Roar Food. Instead of rinsing twice a day as I have always done for other legumes, I needed to rinse at least 3 or 4 times a day. Just to be on the safe side, I rinse whenever I notice the jar on my sink.

Making the hummus is easy once the chick peas have been sprouted. Here is a Thermomix version of the recipe.

Recipe ingredients:
Chick peas sprouted for 1 to 2 days
Tomato
Basil and other available greens
Condiments to taste - garlic, salt, lemon juice

Instructions:

Blend all ingredients in the Thermomix on speed 4 for 15 to 30 seconds.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I’ve enjoyed making coconut chicken from Thermomix’s Budget Busters cookbook, and the fast chicken curry recipe from the Everyday Cooking recipe book always works out well. But I wanted to make a chicken meal without coconut milk.

I remembered a sweet and sour pork recipe from the Woman’s Day “Cooking for Slimmers” cookbook and adapted the coconut chicken recipe to work with these new ingredients. The key difference I noted about the sweet and sour recipe was that no corn flour was used to thicken the sauce which suited me as I’ve always enjoyed the consistency of the meal.

There are a few differences between the pork recipe and my chicken version. While I would have preferred to use a freshly cut pineapple, I took the easy option of a small can of pineapple pieces. A roma tomato supplemented the quarter piece of capsicum that I had.

The resulting meal with some brown rice was yummy and will certainly be on the menu again.

Recipe ingredients:

3cm piece ginger

3 cloves garlic

1 onion halved

30g oil

1 tsp sugar

3 chicken thighs (330g) cubed bite-size

1 tbsp soy sauce

225g tin pineapple pieces and juice

1/4 red capsicum chopped

1 roma tomato chopped

Instructions:

Chop ginger, garlic and onion in the Thermomix for 2 secs on speed 6.

Add oil and sauté for 3 mins at Varoma temperature on speed 1.

Add sugar and chicken thighs. Cook for 4 mins at Varoma temperature  on Reverse speed 1.

Add soy sauce, pineapple pieces and juice, capsicum and tomato. Cook for 9 mins at 100deg C on Reverse speed 1.

Serve with rice or steamed vegetables.

Tomato Glut; More Pesto; Baked Beans

Finally a tomato glut! It’s been a rare sight last year and this but it’s nice to know it can still happen. While I also get tomatoes in my Food Connect box, the tomatoes in this bowl have all grown on my upstairs patio.

I’ve also had the biggest bunch of tomatoes in the five years I’ve been growing them. Including the two I had already harvested this bunch had eleven tomatoes on it. I’ve found the Father Tom tomatoes from Floriana have been particularly productive and this bunch just goes to prove it.

Tonight I’ve had the pleasure of working out how I’m going to use them. Homemade baked beans sprang to mind and I also decided to include some tomatoes in the kale pesto I had been planning to make tonight. The remaining tomatoes will go well on my lunch time salad so I’m sure this glut won’t become a burden.

So I decided on a triple whammy! I made the kale and tomato pesto followed by cooking homemade baked beans and then finished off by making my dinner for tonight – all in the Thermomix and only washing it after my dinner had come out. Now that’s what I call efficiency!

I made the pesto the same way as last night except that I added 120g tomatoes to the mix. Adding the tomato gave a new dimension to the overall taste that was quite okay so I’ll probably continue adding tomatoes to pesto in the future. As much of the pesto as possible was placed into the ice cube tray leaving a small quantity in the Thermomix bowl to supplement the next item on the list.

Navy beans were on my shopping list today but since they weren’t available I picked up some black-eyed beans instead. I prefer navy beans as once I’ve cooked them up into baked beans they look just like the canned variety available in the supermarket but with a superior taste of course.

This afternoon I had covered the black-eyed beans with water in a saucepan and boiled the beans for 5 minutes. Then once the heat had receded I boiled and then topped up the water in the saucepan and covered it. An hour or two later I tested the beans and found they had finished cooking and were perfect. 

The absorption method really works for me when cooking quinoa and these black-eyed beans. However with both brown rice and chick peas I have found that after the absorption time I need to refresh the water and cook them a little longer to achieve a good result.

I followed a modified version of the Molasses Baked Beans recipe in the cookbook “America’s Best Slow Cooker Recipes”, which included blending the tomatoes in the Thermomix instead of using tomato paste or sauce . Then I noticed the downside of keeping the remaining pesto in the bowl as the normally red mix had turned brown. 

Recipe ingredients:
350g tomatoes chopped
Small onion chopped
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
half tsp salt
1 tbsp molasses
sprinkle of black pepper
cooked black-eyed beans

Instructions:
Process the tomatoes in the Thermomix for 10 seconds on speed 9.
Add onion, sugar, mustard, salt, molasses, pepper and the cooked black-eyed beans.
Process for 15 minutes at 100 degrees C on reverse speed soft.
 
The pesto’d baked beans tasted very nice. After placing most of the mix into pyrex dishes I then added the ingredients for my stir-fry dinner into the Thermomix which along with a fried egg finished off my marathon cooking effort. Now there’s just a few more dishes for me to deal with and then I’m well and truly done for the night.

Kale Pesto

I scored a huge bunch of kale in my Food Connect box today. Rather than risk not getting to it quickly enough and thus wasting it, I made some kale pesto from a recipe on the internet which I basically followed.

Recipe ingredients:
Clove of garlic chopped
2 cups of kale
½ cup of macadamia nuts
½ teaspoon of Himalayan Salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Instructions:
Process all ingredients in the Thermomix on speed 6 for 10 seconds. 

Half of this mix will supplement my lunch over the next couple of days while I have placed the other half into the freezer.

With half of the kale still waiting to be used, I will buy some pine nuts tomorrow and then make some more pesto. This time I will freeze the pesto in an ice cube tray as I have done in the past with lemon juice. Then I can pull one or two pesto cubes out at a time which will make things much easier.

If I am really on the ball tomorrow night, I’ll remember to make the pesto first and then make my dinner in the Thermomix so that my dinner will get some pesto flavour. I love getting multiple meals out of my Thermomix. It makes washing it afterwards so much more worthwhile!

Pineapple Salad

Yummm. It might seem like an unusual dinner but I had some pineapple, carrot and sweet potato that I wanted to use up before picking up my Food Connect box tomorrow.
Pineapples are very juicy. I had enjoyed half of the pineapple chopped up with my lunch and as a mid-afternoon snack. The remainder formed the basis of a chunky souped up salad comprising just three ingredients.

Recipe ingredients:
320g pineapple
210g carrot
120g sweet potato

Instructions:
Process the ingredients together in the Thermomix on speed 6 for 6 seconds.

Naturally there was some chewing involved but the sweetness and liquid nature of the pineapple made it very easy to eat. I added some chick peas just to make sure I was getting enough calories.
After having eaten almost a whole pineapple over two consecutive meals I couldn't finish off the last of the mix as the amount of pineapple I had eaten was affecting my tongue and gums. So the remainder will make it on to my lunch plate tomorrow.
Trying this combination has reminded me that I can mix just about anything together into a soup or salad. This combination would make a great side salad option in a buffet.

Raw Cauliflower and Carrot Soup

I visited the Thermomix Forum and noticed a comment about the Cream of Cauliflower soup recipe in the Rawlicious recipe booklet. I had been thinking about steaming some cauliflower for my dinner but decided instead to make a raw cauliflower and carrot soup with avocado.

 








Recipe ingredients:

160g cauliflower

100g carrot

20g olive oil

20g lemon juice – half a lemon

Dash or two of shoyu sauce

Dribble of honey

375g water

Avocado chunks

Shallots chopped

Instructions:
Add the cauliflower, carrot, olive oil, lemon juice, shoyu sauce, honey and water into the Thermomix bowl. Process for 20 seconds on speed 8.
Warm the mix at 37 degs C for 4 minutes on speed 1.
Add avocado and shallots into serving bowls and pour the mix over the top.

I tasted the mix before adding the shoyu sauce and honey and felt that the lemon had contributed too much, but after adding these extra ingredients enjoyed this soup enough to eat the second bowl that the quantities provided. 
I might leave out the lemon juice, shoyu sauce and honey next time as carrot has such a sweet taste that I don’t need these additions. It turned out to be a slightly chunky soup as I had processed the mix on speed 8 rather than 10 which I was happy with.

I’m pleased that I made this soup as I have been mulling about eating more of my food raw. After trawling through the Rawlicious recipe booklet and moving on to playing with aspects of the 80/10/10 diet, I had gone back to cooking my dinners while including a cooked grain in my breakfast and a cooked legume in my lunch.

I recently watched the “Food Matters” dvd which includes a focus on raw food. One of the speakers recommends 51% or more raw food each day saying that this quantity of raw food will mean that the body won’t react to the remaining amount of cooked food. I might already be at or above this percentage as I eat a fair amount of fruit earlier in the day. However the final comment that I noted from the dvd was that an 80% raw food diet is healthy.

Another comment that I was interested to hear was that two handfuls of raw cashews would give me the therapeutic equivalent of a dose of Prozac. I’ve never considered taking Prozac and prefer to stay away from taking heavy duty drugs. But the next time I’m feeling stressed, as I’m prone to be occasionally, I’ll dig into the cashew supply to check out this theory. Much better to eat nuts than go nuts!

Vegetable Lentil Soup

I bought a slow cooker some years ago and then promptly ordered two cookbooks from Amazon. One of the cookbooks has since been passed onto Lifeline for their next Book Fest while over time I have developed some preferences from the other.

Of course, having become a Thermomix advocate means that I’ll do my best to convert any recipes I find in a competitive cookbook to work even better by using the Thermomix. And that’s exactly what happened when I cooked a modified version of a recipe for Spicy Vegetable-Lentil Soup from the cookbook “America's Best Slow Cooker Recipes” which I worked out could no longer be obtained from Amazon but is still listed there. 

I started out thinking I’d make this lentil soup in the slow cooker, but as I perused the ingredients and instructions, I realised this was a perfect candidate for a Thermomix conversion. Naturally I replaced some ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. 

Recipe Ingredients:
half a cup of red lentils
1 inch ginger
1 clove garlic
chopped onion
½ tsp cumin seeds
Granny Smith apple peeled cored and diced(90g)
2 medium carrots peeled (370g – well maybe they were large!)
chinese bok choy chopped (50g).
½ tsp of Thermomix stock concentrate
½ teaspoon curry powder
600ml water

Instructions:

Wash the red lentils and set them aside.
Process the ginger and garlic for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Push the ginger and garlic down into the lower section of the bowl.
Add onion, cumin seeds, Granny Smith apple, carrots and chinese bok choy.
Process the mix for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Add stock concentrate, curry powder and water with the soaked red lentils.
Cook in the Thermomix for 20 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 1.
Blend the mix at speed 6 for 10 seconds.

Yummm... It’s been a while since I’ve made this soup and it has always been in the slow cooker. I previously blended the soup at a higher speed which gave it a creamy consistency. This time around, I’ve deliberately blended it at a lower speed so that the consistency of the lentils will show through. I really enjoyed eating this soup. It tasted delicious and I promptly went back for some more.

This made a lovely dinner after which I set a new resolution to troll through this cookbook to see if there are any other recipes that I’d like to convert to the Thermomix.

Simplified Raw Soup

I’ve just had a raw meal in the form of a beetroot, corn and pumpkin raw soup. It feels like such a long time since I’ve dabbled with raw soups but I’m so pleased I have.

I know I’ve pretty much discussed raw soups in the past but I couldn’t help putting up my prescription for a pleasant tasting raw soup. It’s so simple that it could well be my shortest post. 

Recipe Ingredients: 
300g vegies/fruit
200g orange juice and/or water

Instructions:

Blend vegies/fruit with the orange juice and/or water in the Thermomix for 30 seconds on speed 8.

I think I’m right! It is my shortest post even including my non-Thermomix conversion – well, up to this point at least! I’ve often thought that a quick meeting is a good meeting and I know my brother influenced me in this thought so I’m all for providing a post that is a quick read!

But wait! I’m sure you won’t mind if I post the photo of my dinner tonight. I made it just as I mentioned above with a couple of variations...Just to be really precise which I suspect is embedded in my nature, here are the ingredients that I used.

Dinner ingredients:
60g beetroot
110g corn niblets
170g pumpkin
190g orange juice
30g water

Final instructions:
Blend all ingredients in the Thermomix bowl on speed 8 for 20 seconds.
I added a further 60g water as the soup was too thick for me and blended again on speed 8 for 10 seconds and the consistency felt right.
After plating up, I scattered some chopped shallots for taste as well as aesthetics.

Naturally the beetroot made its presence visually felt and past experience indicates that this presence will be kinaesthetically felt over the next day or two as it moves through my body. But I don’t mind as beetroot has long been recommended to me as a good source of iron which I was sometimes lacking during my earlier years.

This soup had a lovely light taste and I really enjoyed eating it, and I certainly plan on returning to raw soups in the not too distant future.

So much for the short post! I do try to write short and sweet to reduce writing and reading time. After all, reducing is the first step in that all important mantra – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Raw sweet potato and apple soup

I reckon apple goes with most things in the same way that avocado merges in very nicely with soups or salads.So tonight I have made a raw sweet potato and apple soup.

Recipe Ingredients:
160g peeled sweet potato
60g apple
50g tomato
210g water 

Instructions:
Blend sweet potato, apple, tomato and water in the Thermomix on speed 8 for 30 seconds.
Dish out with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Later I remembered some cooked chick peas and they merged easily into the mix. The sweet potatoes contributed to a very pleasant tasting dish while the apple gave the soup a nice sweet slant. All in all, I was very happy to eat this for my dinner.

Raw Broccoli Salad with Beetroot Dip

Sometimes I feel like I’m in an episode of Ready Steady Cook. I had some broccoli, a beetroot, a tomato and some lemongrass along with other ingredients that I keep in my fridge and pantry.

Fortunately I found a Raw Broccoli Salad recipe that would fit the bill along with some raw beetroot dip made along the same lines as the beetroot hummus from earlier this month.

Recipe Ingredients:
30g pumpkin seeds
Lemon grass stalks
Small piece of ginger
Clove of garlic peeled
Sprigs of parsley and basil
2 cups broccoli florets
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
2 lemon ice cubes from freezer 
1/2 tsp salt (optional as the salad ended up tasting too salty)
65g peeled beetroot
60g tomato
 
Instructions:
Cover pumpkin seeds with water in a sprouting jar and set it aside.

To make the broccoli salad:-
Mill the lemon grass, ginger and garlic for 15 seconds on speed 9.
Add parsley and basil and chop for 2 seconds on speed 6.

Add broccoli florets, cumin seeds, olive oil, 1 lemon ice cube and 1/2 tsp salt and chop for 4 seconds on speed 4.
Place the mix in the fridge to allow the combined ingredients to soften the broccoli.

After an hour - to make the beetroot dip:-
Rinse the pumpkin seeds and place them along with 65g peeled beetroot, 60g tomato and the second lemon juice ice cube into the Thermomix bowl and process on speed 4 for 5 to 10 seconds. 
Blend again at speed 5 or 6 if it is too chunky.

I noticed the difference between chick peas and pumpkin seeds as the pumpkin seeds kept their shape while previously the chick peas had gracefully merged into the hummus. Perhaps I need to soak the pumpkin seeds overnight rather than just for 1 hour… After tasting the dip I knew that I was quite happy with the taste of it but blending again at speed 5 and then 6 gave me what I thought was a better looking dip.

When I tasted the broccoli salad I decided that it was too salty so I combined the salad and dip together very nicely for my lunch which didn’t end up being entirely raw as I added some cooked chick peas.

I think I could safely say I’m having difficulties in letting cooked grains, beans and chick peas go. I’d like to say I’m working on it, but in the meantime would you believe I have weighed what I eat over an average day which comes in roughly at 1 kg of food, and have worked out that I can safely call myself a raw foodist – who is someone that eats 75% or more raw food - if the only cooked items in my day are the cooked grain (100g) with my breakfast, 2 mini muffins (35g) for morning tea, some cooked beans or chick peas (50g) with my lunch, and some more of the cooked beans or chick peas (50g) with my dinner. I can’t see myself managing this when I’m out for lunch or dinner, or visiting family or friends, but this is certainly do-able for the much of the time. I suppose time will tell…

Buckwheat Tabouleh and Chia Seed Gel

I already regularly sprout seeds and beans along with chick peas and I have recently become interested in soaking and sprouting grains after attending the Brisbane Organic Growers meeting earlier this month. Graham Sait from Nutri-Tech Solutions spoke on the decline in human nutrition over the past three generations. My ears perked up when he mentioned raw food and after subscribing to his newsletter read that we were supposed to eat a large percentage of raw food. It seems earlier cultures soaked or sprouted grains and he suggested we do the same to get rid of phytates and enzyme inhibitors.

So being curious about how well grains sprout, I decided to try the Buckwheat Tabouleh recipe from Thermomix’s A Taste of Vegetarian cookbook which includes buckwheat soaked overnight with tomato, cucumber, some herbs and a few extras. And then I noticed on the web that buckwheat is not a grain. But I soldiered on and after chopping for 3 seconds on speed 4 in the Thermomix and then spreading over a bed of alfalfa and lentil sprouts, the mix provided a nice light raw lunch.

The consistency of buckwheat after soaking was quite pleasant and edible and has now become a breakfast option that can be combined with some fruit. And so it made me wonder which of the other grains or rather grain equivalents might be suitable for soaking or sprouting. I have tried sprouting the occasional grain in the past and found the result to be too chewy but I’m willing to try the alternatives particularly considering my interest in raw foods.

But as I mentioned buckwheat is not a grain. Wikipedia tells me that “despite the common name and the grain-like use of the crop, buckwheat is not a cereal or grass. It is called a pseudocereal to emphasize that it is not related to wheat. ” and I have italicised this and other Wikipedia quotes in this post.

Quinoa is the same, being a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. I currently cook quinoa to enjoy with fruit for my breakfast, but just out of curiousity I have tried soaking it to see how it turns out. What I particularly like about quinoa is that it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source...unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine).

I decided to test Wikipedia’s suggestion that only 2–4 hours resting in a glass of clean water is enough to make quinoa sprout and release gases. I tried some soaked quinoa after 4 hours and I’m pleased to report that I could see sprouted tails on the quinoa – and I realise that it’s probably hard to see the same on the photo below after adding some chopped banana. I added some honey after taking the photo and was more than happy to finish off the dish.

Since I’ve moved off talking about grains, I can mention that I regularly make Chia Seed Gel.

Chia Seed Gel Recipe Instructions:
Mix 1 tbsp of Chia seeds with ¾ cup of water and stir for a minute or two to make sure the seeds have separated properly before storing the mix in the refrigerator.

I then use a few teaspoons of this mix each morning in my grain and fruit breakfast. I found the idea on the web and unfortunately didn’t keep the link. However, I have found a new link that explains the process here under the heading of How To Make Chia Seed Gel. I’ve also ground chia seed occasionally and have noticed that chia seed can also be sprouted.

After all of this I haven’t forgotten about my interest in working out how to successfully soak or sprout grains. I have found another web page supporting the soaking or sprouting of nuts, seeds and grains. It seems that this softens them, removes harmful enzyme inhibitors, and enhances their nutritional value prior to eating so now nuts will go into my list of things to play with.

Raw Strawberry and Cabbage Soup

This really hit the spot - a lovely cool soup at the end of a particularly hot day. It’s the night before I pick up my next Food Connect box and I had some cabbage in the fridge and a punnet of strawberries in the freezer. What better way to use them than to combine into a summer soup!

Recipe Ingredients:
200g strawberries
100g cabbage
20g mint and basil
200g water

Instructions:
Blend all ingredients together in the Thermomix on speed 8 for 20 seconds.
Sprinkle mint leaves to adorn the top.