health

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What’s popping? From the humble kernel to healthy and delicious popcorn snacking

Posted by encylofoodia on June 20, 2012
Posted in: Dairy free? Holy Cow!, Dazzling Dairy Free Recipes, Dazzling Recipes for Groups, Green shoots: cooking with kids, Mini Fork. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The impending birth of our first child later this year has driven me to search for a theory on parenting, one that creates well balanced, happy and nicely behaved children.  Inspired by a recent article I read on French children and their eating habits, I have located, and subsequently mentally subscribed to ‘French Children Don’t Throw Food’ by Pamela Druckerman.  Not a theory in itself, but a series of learnings by am American journalist living and bringing up an infant in Paris.  It details the underlying and assumed common sense parenting techniques that the French employ, that surprisingly are pretty different from those we see in the UK and US.

It’s a book I can’t put down, so I have no doubt that I’ll explore it more and detail other parts, but one of the first and most striking tenets it discusses, are the eating habits of French children, or more correctly, the framework that their mealtimes are built into.  Instead of the ‘eat when hungry notion’,  Druckerman illustrates how children, almost from birth, are instilled with a sense of timing and occasion with regards to food.  Their mealtimes are at 8am, midday, and 8pm, with a snack at 4.  There is a lot of information around this, such as how it can create better sleepers, teach children patience, and that they don’t need to eat all the time, or eat to feel comforted, or through boredom.

I want to do that.  I don’t mean just for the child either, I actually want to be able to do that myself.  As a grazer, I often kid myself that I eat little and often to keep my metabolism up and stave off a blood sugar rollercoaster,  thats all fine, but sometimes I eat little and often IN ADDITION to 3 main meals a day!  I had few rules around food as a child, which is in stark contrast to my husband, who brought up by an Italian mother, had much the same rules referred to by Druckerman.  Needless to say, I struggle a little sometimes (ahem) with stopping eating, and he is very relaxedabout food, doesn’t snack and never overeats.

While I try to deal with longer term issues of boredom snacking, emotional eatingand just plain gluttony, I thought maybe healthier snacks would be a good thing to help me through the pregnancy.  I like all snacks, salty, sweet, I’m not biased, but I do like them to help fill me up, and to taste like a treat (who doesn’t?)

I do however think snacks should be already prepared, have a decent shelf life, and be easy to store and transport.  In my quest for optimum health I ruled out fried foods, anything overly processed and anything with unnatural ingredients.   Popcorn, is where I ended up.

It’s a much debated grain, from the modified frustose syrup that you can be sure is doing you no good, to the fresh cobs steamed with a little black pepper- corn it’s has its pros and its cons.  It’s little husk contains lots of soluble and insoluble fibre (hence why we need to chew it a lot), and when eaten in natural and unprocessed forms (in moderation), the soft yellow nuggets make a sweet and child friendly addition to the vegetable selection contaning anti oxidants, phytonutrients, folic acid, B vitamins and shockingly, protein! The hard little bullets of dried corn also provide the vehicle for a flexible, satisfying and not unhealthy snack.

I have often extolled the virtues of Coconut Oil, and here is no exception.  To pop corn, you need to get oil to a seriously high temperature.  Coconut oil is perfect here as its a much more stable fat and the meduim chain fatty acids are very heat resistant and more likley to remain safe and even healthy.

Once you have corn thats popped (as per the recipe below- though you can hardly call it a recipe) , you can add just about any flavour that will stick!

I like to make a few flavours from each batch, yes I’m fickle and self indulgent, but it stops me reaching for chocolate or fried snacks and feels like a snack of choice, rather than one guided by virtue.

I have picked, my staple base flavours that cover a few bases (recipes below):

  • sweet coconut which kids love (and adults steal)
  • the savoury and slightly sophisticated hot smoked paprika- great as nibbles with drinks
  • the classic combination of salt and vinegar

Hot hot hot! Smoked paprika goes beautifully with an aperetif.

Ingredients:

  • 100g popping corn
  • 3 table spoons of raw virgin coconut oil
  • seasoning (either shredded coconut and granultaed sugar, hot smoked paprika, or malt vinegar in a spritzer and sea salt)

Method:

Melt the oil in a large pan with a lid.  Add the corn, give a quick stir and put the lid of the pan on.  Shake the pan a couple of times, and leave it to pop, shaking every 30 seconds or so to make sure nothing burns on the bottom and all the kernels pop.  When the popping is 4-5 seconds apart, take the pan off the heat and transfer the hot little clouds to a dish to cool slightly.

For the sweet coconut, melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil and toss well through the cooled pop corn.  When the kernels are well covered, toss through  3 tablespoons of a mixture of equal parts granulated sugar and dessicated/dried coconut.

For the paprika, just toss through the red powder until each little whilte cloud has a dusting of intense red,  I tend to use about 3 teaspoons, but let taste (and what your guests like) be your guide.

For the salt and vinegar, put the malt vinegar in a spritzer (it sounds very Heston Bluenthal) and spray through the popcorn.  Don’t let it get soggy, keep moving it.  Add salt to taste, I find 2 teaspoons is fine for this amount of corn, but again, keep tasting and adjust as necessary.

The multi cultural British menu, and how shortbread got the tropical treatment (recipe included)

Posted by encylofoodia on June 15, 2012
Posted in: Dairy free? Holy Cow!, Dazzling Dairy Free Recipes. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

For a long time in the UK we have thought of ourselves as open to an embracing other cultures and the foods they expose us to.  From the days of the Empire and the tea trade, to today’s melting pot of nationalities we have adopted food from afar.  Tea is not a native plant to the UK, but if you ask anyone what our national beverage is, they are likely to exclaim, “Tea!  There is nothing more British than a cup of tea!”.  The regular (fairly random and silently funded) studies into what the UK’s favourite foods are often reflect our eclectic tastes with curries at the top (often with chicken tikka masala, a sweet and creamy UK invention which you won’t find in India).  Britains pile into Chinese restaurants, French is a classy and rich centrefuge for small men doing big business deals, Italian is great to share with friends and wine, Tapas is a perfect start to a night out, yet do we see good British retaurants in far flung places?  No, only where the ex pats feel the need to bypass beautiful local cuisines and feel as if they might just be in the UK on a hot day- picture the typical Britsh pie serving pub on the Costa Brava.

I do however love so much about British cuisine, on cold days I love a steak pie with mash, in the spring our vegetables are second to none (well perhaps the metiterranean), and there is nothing sweeter than picking your own berries on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Floating, non commitedly in the middle, is fusion food- the domain of famous restaurants and people who can’t decide. I like integrity in food, I think the Italians have paired tomato with basil for years because it works better than anything else, and that the japanese eat pickled ginger to cleanse the pallete after fatty uncltuous raw fish becuase that works better than anything else.  I am not a fan of mixing wildly different cuisines, I would admit that I am a purist in this sense.

This is not to say that we can’t learn from other cuisines.  Case in point is in my search for dazzling dairy free dishes, somthing that the butter centric UK doesn’t do particularly well.  Europe opened our eyes to olive oil and goose fat and Asia and the Caribbean, to Coconut fat.   Coconuts contain a lot of fat, saturated fat at that!   The fatty tasty fruit produces an oil, which has been attributed to health benefits as diverse as weightloss, immune system support, to tooth decay.  It contains a higher % of fat than butter (which is around 20% water) which means that coconut oil lends itself beautifully to shorter pastries and crusts.   Here, it makes the shortest, most melty and creamy dairy free shortbread you can imagine:

Dazzling Dairy Free Shortbread

Dazzling Dairy Free Shortbread

Ingredients

  • 70g sugar
  • 150g softened coconut oil
  • 200g flour
  • pinch of salt

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

By hand mix together the sugar and coconut oil until it forms a smooth runny paste.  Add the flour and salt and rub the mixture between your fingers as you would standard shortbread.

When the dough is throughly combined, shape into ‘fingers’ and squash flat.  Prick with a fork- it doesn’t add much to the texture, but it does look just like real shortbread that way!

Bake on greaseproof paper for 20-22 mins until golden brown.  Take care when taking these from the oven as they will be soft and break easily.

When they have cooled and hardened, enjoy with some very British tea!

Add some saturated fat to your diet. Why Virgin Coconut Oil is nature’s antibacterial, heart healthy metabolism booster

Posted by encylofoodia on May 9, 2012
Posted in: Dazzling Juice Recipes, Juice looose about this hoooose. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I know it’s deep for a Wednesday afternoon, but I wholeheartedly believe that despite the human race being so scientificaly advanced, learning so much about the planet we live on and the universe that we live in, we still know relatively little about what the earth gives us to work with for our health and well being.  In fact, we probably know less than any other time in history, our current judgement being clouded by mass marketing intiatives created to drive sales of man made items.

At 16, I took an art exam, and created a 3 feet tall medicine capsule, the top was clear and depicted a rainforest inside, I felt strongly that by destroying our tropical forests, that we were burning and destroying cures for diseases, and knowledge that the earth could teach us.  Pretty profound for a 16 year old and I was a called a hippie by my classmates (or whatever the 90’s version of hippie was).  I however think that we me at my most inciteful.

Around the world, diets vary so massively from the eskimo high in saturated animal fat diet, to the japanese sea and vegeateble rich cuisine. In the West we have seen a huge amount of transition from one dietary trend to another, depending on the latest research and what is ‘most healthy’ at that time- and these diets vary wildly in their theology.  We have seen societies feed around a high grain and high carb menu when money has been tight, we have seen the extremes of high animal protein and high fat being the best for us, and likewise we have seen low fat.

It’s no surprise then, that people are confused, and governmental and general health bodies telling us to eat a bit of everything in moderation- it’s a catch all, designed to prevent serious food related disease in a nation.  What it doesn’t recognise or deliver is optimal health, which is surely where we should all be looking?

Likewise, in the UK, the RDA or Recommended Daily Allowance was created after WW2 at a time of food sparsity and hardship to outline basic and minimal levels of nutrients needed by the body to prevent diseases such as scurvy.  It is not a guide as to what our optimum intake of nutrients should be.

There are some basic principles that are however consistent and can only be good for us….drinking water, eating fresh fruits and vegetables in their natural state and not over eating.   But then what about the basic principle of not consuming saturated fats?  Trans or hydrogenated fats, made bad by human intervention (to increase shelf life) are without doubt bad, but not all saturated fats are created equal.

I am talking here about coconut fat.  In its virgin, cold pressed state, most usually solid, coconut oil although 100% saturated fat (more than butter which is 80% fat) has been linked with many health benefits:

  • Loss of excess weight, by supporting the liver and its metabolism of fat.
  • Anti viral and anti fungal properties, with links so strong that this fat may be great support for anyone wishing to support their immune systems, or even battle an imune defficeincy disorder (yes im talking about HIV/AIDS)
  • High in medium chain fattys acids,  unlike long chain fatty acids, found in most other vegetables, its easy for the body to break down and used for energy rather than being stored as fat.  This means that you get energy, but without the insulin spike that you would associate with carbs.

Coconut fat is great to cook with, especialy as it is more stable than other fats and has a higher smoking point so you are less likely to create the toxins associated with heating oil at too high a temperature.  It also is great for baking, and can create the shorest pastries and cookies, as per my Coconut Shortbread Recipe.

But I try to eat raw as much as possible, and I’m going to be exploring how I can squeeze more of this liquid platinum into my diet in its purest form….I’ll start where I do each day…with my green smoothie.  A sweet and creamy concoction of spinach, avocado, pineapple, cucumber, celery and occasionally apples….now to be joined by organic virgin coconut oil.

I was nervous about eating raw oil.  Would it taste icky and coat my mouth?  Would it feel al geasy and make me heave?

No, it makes my green smoothing taste like a pina colada!!! Happy Days!!!

For one of my Green Smoothie recipies click here.  Just add 1 teaspoon of the solid coconut oil (I use Viridian Virign Cold Pressed) at the point of blending the spinach.

The squirrel knows something we don’t…

I also have a couple of skin complaints, so I’ll be using those as an experiment to test those anti viral properties 🙂

The multicultural British Menu…and how shortbread got the tropical treatment (dairy free recipe included)

Posted by encylofoodia on May 6, 2012
Posted in: Dairy free? Holy Cow!, Dazzling Dairy Free Recipes, Mini Fork. Tagged: , , , , , , . 1 Comment

For a long time in the UK we have thought of ourselves as open to an embracing other cultures and the foods they expose us to.  From the days of the Empire and the tea trade, to today’s melting pot of nationalities we have adopted food from afar.  Tea is not a native plant to the UK, but if you ask anyone what our national beverage is, they are likely to exclaim, “Tea!  There is nothing more British than a cup of tea!”.  The regular (fairly random and silently funded) studies into what the UK’s favourite foods are often reflect our eclectic tastes with curries at the top (often with chicken tikka masala, a sweet and creamy UK invention which you won’t find in India).  Britains pile into Chinese restaurants, French is a classy and rich centrefuge for small men doing big business deals, Italian is great to share with friends and wine, Tapas is a perfect start to a night out, yet do we see good British retaurants in far flung places?  No, only where the ex pats feel the need to bypass beautiful local cuisines and feel as if they might just be in the UK on a hot day- picture the typical Britsh pie serving pub on the Costa Brava.

I do however love so much about British cuisine, on cold days I love a steak pie with mash, in the spring our vegetables are second to none (well perhaps the metiterranean), and there is nothing sweeter than picking your own berries on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Floating, non commitedly in the middle, is fusion food- the domain of famous restaurants and people who can’t decide. I like integrity in food, I think the Italians have paired tomato with basil for years because it works better than anything else, and that the japanese eat pickled ginger to cleanse the pallete after fatty uncltuous raw fish becuase that works better than anything else.  I am not a fan of mixing wildly different cuisines, I would admit that I am a purist in this sense.

This is not to say that we can’t learn from other cuisines.  Case in point is in my search for dazzling dairy free dishes, somthing that the butter centric UK doesn’t do particularly well.  Europe opened our eyes to olive oil and goose fat and Asia and the Caribbean, to Coconut fat.   Coconuts contain a lot of fat, saturated fat at that!   The fatty tasty fruit produces an oil, which has been attributed to health benefits as diverse as weightloss, immune system support, to tooth decay.  It contains a higher % of fat than butter (which is around 20% water) which means that coconut oil lends itself beautifully to shorter pastries and crusts.   Here, it makes the shortest, most melty and creamy dairy free shortbread you can imagine:

Dazzling Dairy Free Shortbread

Dazzling Dairy Free Shortbread

Ingredients

  • 70g sugar
  • 150g softened coconut oil
  • 200g flour
  • pinch of salt

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

By hand mix together the sugar and coconut oil until it forms a smooth runny paste.  Add the flour and salt and rub the mixture between your fingers as you would standard shortbread.

When the dough is throughly combined, shape into ‘fingers’ and squash flat.  Prick with a fork- it doesn’t add much to the texture, but it does look just like real shortbread that way!

Bake on greaseproof paper for 20-22 mins until golden brown.  Take care when taking these from the oven as they will be soft and break easily.

When they have cooled and hardened, enjoy with some very British tea!

The forever detox and why you can’t BEET it (juice recipe included)

Posted by encylofoodia on April 30, 2012
Posted in: Dazzling Juice Recipes, Juice looose about this hoooose, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

How many detox diet books are there?  A lot.  When I think of a detox diet I think a temporary reduction in food, a temporary change to clean and healthy foods and lots of water, it brings to mind a sloth type puddle of a person, full of toxins, steaming their red faced way to the library in the hope of deep cleaning with a break from all the crap and some bottled water.

Yet I live my life in a constant state of detox.  Not because I fill my body with crap, but because it’s the way our bodies work.  We are always interacting with the world and things around us, and with this, we take in toxins; whether we are eating, breathing, walking, at the beauty salon, at work- we absorb things (we need to or we couldn’t breathe or eat) through our skin, lungs, digestive systems.  So it’s lucky that our bodies are in a constant state of detox, from breathing to peeing, there is nothing temporary about detoxification.

I have posted in the past about how dieting doesn’t work, no temporary plan does  Its a bottom level, fundamental forever term lifestyle change that needs to be ambraced.  I aim not to say, ‘I ate crap today so im going to drink organic juice tomorrow’, but to live in a way that puts as few toxins in, and maximises toxins out.

These are some of my low-toxin tenets:

Juicing

  • This hits two spots of being as easy to digest as a liquid/pulp is, but with the added big bebefits of being chock full of raw enzymes, high quality nutrients and water.  I could never (and wouldn’t have the inclination) to tuck into a breakfast of spinach, avocado, apples, celery, pineapple and cucumber, but it makes a lovely drink and that I can gulp of sip to my heart’s content.

Live in a relaxed way

  • I have seen first hand the toll that stress takes on our physical bodies, manifesting itself in diseases from skin problems, to ulcerative colitis.  Stress is not the body’s natural state, and when under stress the body creates cortisol-the stress hormone, something that thosusands of years ago, would have given us the energy to either fight the wooly mammoth or run away.  Cortisol affects blood glucose metabolism- if it’s upset, people can either loose or gain weight (I was in the latter group), it also affects immune systems and inflammatory responses of the body, so its no surprise that the skin and digestive systems can suffer.

Eat as low on the food chain as possible

  • If foods are processed they are likley to contain toxins, my rule is that if it’s not something that I can identify, justify or understand, I won’t eat it.

Eat organic where possible

  • I figure that pesticides and chemical fertilizers are put on plants to do one of two things, either kill bugs or force the plants to grow bigger or faster.  Personally I don’t want to consume anything that’s created to kill life (even if I don’t want to eat caterpillars) or anything thats artifically forcing something to grow bigger (at 30 I don’t want to be getting bigger). This goes also for meat, and it’s equally if not more important as the hormones used to increase growth will be al the more reactive with humans, as they are built to grow animal tissue.

Either way, supporting your detox functions every day, it the easy way to detox, you don’t need a book, you don’t need a diet.  Just limit your toxins, support your detox….pee and breathe 🙂 it’s not so hard!

In the daily task of detoxing and cleaning, there is help at hand.  It’s an unlikley suitor, a dark and gnarly, often hairy, bulbous object, it grows in soft rich earth, and its known by gardeners for being hardy and in fact very hard too!  Its flesh is earthy smelling, but its juice is an unnatural flourescent puce. Its is ladies and gentlemen, the BEET!!

Ful of anti oxidants and nutrients such as magnesium, potassium and vitamin C, beetroots have been credited with cancer reducing properties and more recently attributed to increased detoxification and lowering cholesterol.

Try this juice recipe for a sweet beet detox support:

Super sweet beet juice

Ingredients

Handful of spinach

1 large beet (150-200g)

2 oranges

1/3 pinapple, peeled

Method

Blend or puree the spinach, and juice the beet, the organges and pinepple on top.  Blend the whole mixture together to give a lovely frothy top, and enjoy…..just watch your mouth afterwards, you might have a nice beet pink mouth 🙂

A lesson from France: teaching our kids how to eat

Posted by encylofoodia on April 24, 2012
Posted in: Green shoots: cooking with kids, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . 3 Comments

I have talked on the blog before about children and the importance of teaching them how to eat well, not just what is healthy and how to cook it, but eating well and enjoying it as part of their lives.  We know that the ‘west’ on the whole does not embody this ideal very well, however an article in the Sunday papers reminded me that somewhere not to far from the UK does embed great food values in their children from birth…that place is France.

This is the country of cheese and wine (even when pregnant), of creamy sauces and gastronomique, they deny themselves little and savour every mouthful, yet the typical Parisienne woman is not obese, they are not known for all-you-can-eat restaurants or binge drinking.  They (for the most part) know how to eat.  It’s taught by parents, by grand parents, by school and it’s a way of life.

While sales of ready prepared meals have shot up in the UK, by 25% between 2006-2011, the French have resisted with only 9% growth in the same period.

So, how do they teach their children about food, and what can we do to set our children up for a life of great food?   Karen Le Billon, writes in this weeks Sunday Times about her move to France and the food education that she couldn’t avoid.

Firstly, the parent decides the food that the child eats, this goes for setting rules around what they can and cannot eat, how they ask for food and how they are presented with choices around food.   The example Le Bilon cites is that the child may always have permission to take a peice of fruit, but for anything else they must ask, another example byway of enabling them to make choices is not ‘what would you like with your chicken tonight?’ but ‘would you like aubergine or spinach with your chicken?’

Also do not let circumstances or or your child’s mood diactate what they munch on, it might save some embarassment if you can feed the whingy child some crisps, or you might cheer them up (temporarily) with a bar of chocolate, but what you teach by doing this is emotional eating.  If treat or unhealthy foods are seen as a reward or as a crutch, this will follow your child into adulthood.

The concept of food and life, as a social and enjoyable centrefuge, one that we talk about, create together and come together over peppers Le Billon’s article.   Enabling children to understand how their food comes about, from farm, to shop, to kitchen, to plate is key to them understanding how to make choices.   By starting early and encouraging a wide range of flavours and textures, you open the door to unfussy and enjoyable mealtimes.

Most notably (and incitefully) she recommends treating children more like adults, from allowing them to dislike and leave something, but always to be encouraged to try again.  This subtle approach means that the little mites shouldn’t be forced to finish their plates (this reminds me of the addage that if you were caught smoking as a teenager your parents made you smoke the whole box to stop you doing it again) but to taste and to explore- not whether they like the food or not, but is it soft, is it sweet, how does it feel?  The French put the pleasure in food from the start.

This is not to say, however, that the French are the only one of our European neighbours to embody good eating, my husband’s mother is Italian and she has bred her children with the same appreciation and gusto for good food, the Spanish and the Portuguese  and so many others preserve and promote real food and it’s (large) part of family and social life.

But it’s the French who have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’….

 

How an amusingly shaped carrot (and its juice) added some sunshine to my day….

Posted by encylofoodia on April 18, 2012
Posted in: Dazzling Juice Recipes, Juice looose about this hoooose, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I wrote recently about the much maligned pea, a traditional vegetable forgotten in a sea of more unusual and fashionable legumes.  A good friend to the pea, I feel is the carrot (I think Forrest Gump agreed with me).

The old wives tale tells us that carrots are good for the eyes (despite little research being done here) and it may hold some truth, 1 cup of carrot contains about 400% of your vitamina A requirement, a substance needed to maintain the health of your retinas.   If we take a lOOK (hah excuse the pun) at more recent research however carrots are chock full of antioxidants, some which are known to prevent cardio vascular disease (carotenoids) and some that have been linked to protection against colon cancer (polyacetylenes).  Although these antioxidants in carrots are fairly stable (which means that you can cook them and not loose too many), they are at their best when consumed raw,

Today was a dull day in the UK, April showers, and little sun to be seen, until I opened my bag of carrots to find two comically joined together like little pair of (badly) fake tanned legs.  Childish? Perhaps. Silly? Yes. Did it brighten my day? Absolutely!

Laughing is so good for us (so I made sure to boost my friend’s health by posting it in Facebook) but so are carrots, so I share with you the silly photo (at the bottom), and a fabulous, shiny, happy carrot juice concoction.

Sunshine in a glass, juice recipe

This recipe produces such a vibrant bright juice, that you can’t help but be cheered by it.  It’s a little glass of sunshine whatever the weather.

Ingredients:

6-8 clean carrots

1/2 a small pineapple, peeled

2 apples

Method:

Juice everything and radiate in its warm sunny glow 🙂 gulp!

Next up: This sunny juice has left me feeling totally tropical, I’m going to do a coconutty juice recipe!

Ahahahahahahah

Why We Should Give Peas a Chance (and this dairy free creamy pea soup recipe!)

Posted by encylofoodia on April 18, 2012
Posted in: Dairy free? Holy Cow!, Dazzling Dairy Free Recipes, Mini Fork, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

My last blog was extolling the virtues of green foods, the wonderful chlorophyll therein and the health benefits it gives you.

My friends over at Worlds Healthiest Foods send me many interesting articles on weird and wonderful health giving foods, what they contain and why and exactly what you can expect to gain from consuming them.  Today, the humble pea is in the spotlight, another green friend from the chlorophyll family..

Regularly pooh-poohed as a standard, and well known veggie, known the western world over as the nemisis of small children (many here in the UK call them devil’s bogies), the pea is low cost, easy to get hold of and easy to store (frozen is best unless you are picking your own).

Recent studies have established that 2mg coumestrol a day, a phytoniutrient that is found in peas (and other legumes), can prevent gastric cancer, so its no mean feat that 1 cup of green peas contains more than 10mg of this good stuff.   But this is not where the benefits stop, our little green buddies are thought to be able to prevent type 2 diabetes due to their low glyeciemic index and combination of fibre and protien.

One thing we haven’t mentioned is the starch component of peas, relatively high for a green veggie, and regardless of the health benefits its gives, starch has some great uses in cooking.  In my dairy free risotto recipe the starchy rice provides a creamy risotto base, in rich gravy adding starchy potato can enrich and add body, and here, in my pea and basil soup recipe, it creates a smooth and silky emulsion of a soup, again, dairy free.

Dairy Free Creamy Pea and Basil Soup  (serves 4, prawns optional)

Ingredients

1 large white onion (about 200g), diced

2 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 red chilli, chopped into large peices

500g frozen peas

1l good vegetable stock

big handful of basil

Squeeze of lime

16-20 raw peeled prawns (if using prawns)

3 tablespoons olive oil (only 2 if not using prawns)

Method

Add the chilli, garlic, onion and 2 tablespoons of oil to a large pan, season, and very gently sweat.  Don’t let anything catch or colour, and keep stirring until the mixture is opaque, aromatic and smelling sweet, this will take 10 minutes or so.  Now add the vegetable stock to the pan and bring to the boil.  Once the mixture is at a nice nice rolling boil, add the peas and reduce the heat to simmer.  This will only need 2 minutes or so cooking before the peas are tender and bringht green.

Remove from the heat and let cool a little (here sometimes I add a couple of ice cubes to bring the heat down- by nature I am impatient but this also serves to preserve the lovely green colour).  Once this has cooled a little, either use a hand blender (safer option) or transfer the chunky soup to a food processor (if you do this make sure to leave a hole at the top for steam to get out, or you will have a green kitchen).  Right before you blend, add the basil, reserving a few sprigs for decoration and a squeeze of lime.  Once you have a creamy smooth consistency, transfer the green emulsion back to the same pan and gently reheat.

If you are using prawns, simply toss them in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and griddle or pan fry until just cooked (if you only have a few slice them in half lenghtways and they look pretty and go further), it won’t take more than a couple of minutes while you reheat the soup.  Right before serving, add the prawns, and the remaining torn basil leaves.  Viola!

Next stop:  I am going to have to try a creamy dairy free dessert…..