What to do if your tahini separates

Posted by kathryn in Nuts & seeds

Tahini is one of my favourite ingredients. I buy big jars of the stuff and use it all the time.

No matter how old or new the tahini, it’s always separated out to some extent, as the oil floats to the top of the jar and the more fibrous solids descend to the bottom.

Up until recently I’ve attempted to remix the two layers by hand, by mixing it with a spoon. However, as Madhur Jaffrey says “you can feel as though you’re mixing cement”. It’s hard work and never very effective.

Then recently I hit on an easy and kind of obvious solution . . .

. . . storing the jar upside down.

Rather than using your own elbow grease you’re letting gravity do the work for you. The two layers won’t mix together immediately. However, gradually, the oil will start to rise again, the fibrous solids start to fall and the two mix together.

I’m also using the same storage method for my peanut butter.

It helps to screw the lids of the jars on tightly and also to put some kitchen towel underneath, as there can be a small amount of leakage at first. But otherwise this method works really well, no cement mixing required.

Some of my favourite ways to use tahini

• in salad dressings
• as a spread on toast
• to make a thick and rich sauce in casseroles
• stirred through quickly cooked greens
• in a dairy free polenta meal

How do you use tahini?

No comments 21 May, 2013

The 'life changing loaf of bread': good or bad?

Posted by kathryn in Grains and Nuts & seeds

You may have heard of My New Roots life changing loaf of bread (LCLB). There’s a whole lot of hype around the recipe and assumptions made about its health qualities, which may not be entirely realistic. So exactly how healthy is the life changing loaf of bread?

The Good

• It’s a clever little recipe. No yeast, no kneading or double proving, flouring bread boards and mess. Instead you just mix the ingredients together in a loaf tin, leave it for two hours and then bake. Simple with minimal washing up.
• It contains a far greater range of ingredients than your average loaf of bread, including different nuts and seeds and rolled oats. Given variety is a key healthy eating principle, eating this “bread” is giving you a broad range of foods in each slice.
• Nuts and seeds are fantastic foods, full of vitamins and minerals. Regularly eating small portions of nuts is strongly associated with a reduced risk of stroke and heart attacks.
• I haven’t made the loaf yet, but a client brought some into clinic for me to try and it’s quite delicious. It’s not bread, so you need to get that comparison out of your head before you eat it. However the LCLB is tasty, nutty and has a lovely texture. Toasted and topped with hummus or avocado and slices of fresh tomato is particularly good.
• It’s a low-GI recipe and the LCLB is filling.
• It has about three times the fibre of standard bread. Plus it contains more calcium, magnesium and potassium.

The Bad

• It’s not totally gluten free. While the gluten free or otherwise status of rolled oats is complicated, most coeliac guidelines exclude oats unless you can find oats which are specifically labelled as being gluten free. These are not widely available. I see them mentioned on US blogs, but have never seen them here in Australia. For more on oats, take a look at Coeliac Australia’s position statement on oats. There’s a link under the What is gluten section?
• While nuts are a brilliant food, the LCLB contains a lot of nuts and lots of nuts equals lots of kilojoules. Assuming you cut the loaf into 12 slices, which I suspect would be quite thin slices, then each slice would contain about 980kJ. Obviously if you cut your loaf into fewer slices, the kilojoule count is going to be higher again. This is a lot for “bread”, in fact it’s about double the kilojoules of a slice of regular wholegrain bread.
• If you’re trying to maintain a healthy weight you need to be careful how much of the LCLB you eat. You can’t equate it slice for slice with normal bread.

Ignore the life changing “promise”, this loaf of bread has many positives, but it also has a lot of hype around it. I’ve read many posts and comments by people who’ve loved it and gobbled it up in a couple of days, which is fine, but that’s a lot of kilojoules for most people.

While it’s “gluten free and vegan” and contains ‘superfood’ ingredients like chia and flax seeds and coconut oil, these factors don’t automatically make it healthy and right for you.

Have you tried the life changing loaf of bread?

9 comments 06 May, 2013

Making stock for noodle soups

Posted by kathryn in Soups and Recipes

I made a bloomin’ marvellous stock on the weekend.

Now, stock is not something I make or even use very often. I find most bought stock quite boring and one-dimensional. They’re all salt and front of mouth flavour, with little depth and frankly I can do better with good ingredients, some seasonings and careful cooking.

However, I also love noodle soups and for a noodle soup you need a good stock. No amount of fiddling and slow sauteeing while do.

I made some of Lucy’s magnificent beetroot soup over the weekend, which left me with two stalks of lemongrass. I also had kaffir lime leaves in the freezer, a nugget of ginger which needed to be used and some leftover vegetable bits and pieces from other cooking. All of which made me think stock.

A flavour filled vegetable stock for noodle soups

When making this stock you basically saute some vegetables and flavourings in olive oil, add water and then leave to gently simmer. When you strain the vegetables at the end make sure you give them a good squeeze to release all the final bits of flavour.

I’ve included some suggestions at the end on how you can vary the flavours and also make use of your soup base. This recipe makes about 1 litre of stock, which I find is enough for 3 portions of soup.

• 1 cup leftover vegetables – I used carrot tops, broccoli stalks, red capsicum & zucchini ends
• 1 small onion
• 2 lemongrass stalks
• 2cm piece fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• The leftover root and stalks from a bunch of coriander
• 3 black peppercorns

Prep the vegetables: Roughly chop the vegetables. Cut the ends off the onion, peel and then roughly chop. Bruise the lemongrass all the way along the stalk using a pestle, rolling pin or the base of a saucepan. You want the lemongrass to be soft and pliable, but not smashed to pieces. Give the ginger a more gentle bash, until it’s broken up.

Saute the vegetables: Place a saucepan, with a lid, on a medium heat. Add the olive oil and once hot, but not smoking, put in the vegetables, onion, lemongrass, ginger, kaffir lime leaves and coriander stalks. Saute these for 6 – 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the vegetables catch on the base of the pan – although you don’t want them to burn – as these caramely bits all add to the flavour of your stock.

Cook the stock: Add 1.5 litres of water and a small pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat down to a gentle simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes and then turn the heat off.

To finish: Place a colander over a large bowl. If your colander has large holes then you may need to line it with a clean teatowel. Strain the stock through the colander. Give the remnants left in the colander a squeeze with the back of a spoon.

Cooking & Storage Notes:

Keep in the fridge for up to 2 days, but I divide it up into individual portions and freeze.

Variations:

• Add star anise or bay leaves.
• Use some tamarind or mirin instead of the kaffir lime.
• If garlic is in season then a couple of bashed up cloves would be brilliant.
• Replace the coriander stalks with mint.
• Whole dried chillies add some heat.
• Chopped up green shallots would be delicious.
• A splash of umeboshi vinegar and or fish sauce are great additions.

Noodle soups to make

• Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking is a stock fan and a while back wrote a guest post about Tuesday night Asian soups. I’ve made both her egg drop soup and often use her guidelines for making noodle soups.
• You could also use this stock as a base for Martha Rose Shulman’s tofu and spinach pho.

Do you make stock?

5 comments 30 April, 2013

Stuck in a breakfast rut: 7 new breakfasts

Posted by kathryn in Breakfast

In this month’s clinic newsletter our topic was Challenging Yourself. Thinking about this topic and realising I’ve been in a breakfast rut recently, I decided to challenge myself to eat a different breakfast every day for a week. Here’s what I had.

Breakfast Pita

Wholemeal pita bread with avocado, lettuce and egg mixed together with dukkah and yoghurt. Topped with more dukkah and a squeeze of lime juice.

Savoury Porridge

In my breakfast rut I’ve mainly been eating toast and eggs. Alternating between these two over and over. The one different breakfast I have managed is savoury porridge. This one is porridge made with water, with leftover beany taco sauce from the night before stirred through and then topped with a dollop of plain yoghurt.

Roasted Vegetable Omelette

One night last week I made some sweet potato wedges. I used the leftovers the next day in an omelette, together with some grated beetroot and a few spoonfuls of caramelised onions.

Tomato Salad on Toast

Inspired by Zoe’s incredible looking breakfast one morning I had tomato salad on toast. Cherry tomatoes, mixed with olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar and some dried oregano, smooshed together with my hands and then served on a slice of wholegrain toast.

Spiced Apple Gratin

While dinner was cooking one night I chopped up some apples to make a version of the Spiced Apple Gratin from An Honest Kitchen Seasonal Desserts. I made it slightly less sweet, by using lemon juice instead of orange and taking the spoonful of sugar out of topping. I also added more nuts and seeds to the topping mix. I had this the next day with plain yoghurt.

French Toast

Savoury French toast, topped with quickly pan fried mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of dukkah.

Breakfast from the freezer

This morning I had breakfast from the freezer, although it didn’t quite work out as planned. The night before I got three packets out the freezer – cooked brown rice, stewed apples and what I thought was soy milk. I’d planned to reheat the brown rice in the soy milk with some spices, to make a kind of rice pudding and then have this with the stewed apple and yoghurt. But what I thought was soy milk turned out to be egg whites . . . so instead I reheated the brown rice and the stewed apple together and topped with yoghurt and some walnuts.

What have you been eating for breakfast recently?

7 comments 23 April, 2013

In my kitchen: April

Posted by kathryn in Cooking and Autumn

I’ve been cooking a lot over the last week. General cooking, recipe checking for the next edition of An Honest Kitchen and using up ingredients.

I roasted leftover pumpkin, with some harissa spices. This was used to add flavour, vegetables and interest to an omelette and a couple of salads.

I finally found a way to use up cos lettuce, which I actually enjoyed – stirfried with some ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil.

I’ve been making and thoroughly enjoying, lots of savoury porridges recently. This one had leftover beany taco mix stirred through and a dollop of yoghurt on top.

Our neighbours have an olive tree with plenty of branches which spill over to our side of the fence. This year we’ve picked some and are pickling them – at the moment they’re still in the the brining stage.

After watching Jamie Oliver I tried out a new method for making the Chocolate, Marmalade & Walnut Slice from Seasonal Desserts. I’ve written about it on the An Honest Kitchen blog.

As per usual I’ve been making bread. It’s an easy no-knead loaf I make every week, based on Alice Hart’s recipe in Vegetarian.

I’ve also been making Sweet Potato Wedges – absolutely delicious.

What have you been cooking?

4 comments 16 April, 2013

Does cooking vegetables in the microwave kill all the nutrients?

Posted by kathryn in Cooking and Vegetables

A question from a reader today, Melanie emailed me to ask:

I microwave a bowl of raw broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts almost everyday for dinner, will the ’waves from the microwave destroy all the nutrients in the veggies?

There are three main factors which affect the nutrient content of cooked vegetables – time, temperature and the amount of water used. The greater the quantity of each of these, the greater the nutrient loss. Which means that boiling vegetables until they’re grey and mushy in a big saucepan of water will knock out more nutrients than steaming something for a few minutes.

Therefore microwaving vegetables is a good cooking option, because it’s fast and minimal water is needed. Some studies find microwaving to be on par with, if not better than steaming vegetables, when it comes to retaining some nutrients.

But it’s not as simple as that

However, as Harvard Medical School says “this is nutrition, and nothing in nutrition is simple”. What I’ve written above applies to the water soluble nutrients, like Vitamin C, folate, together with some phytocompounds, like the glucosinolates found in broccoli.

However longer cooking times actually benefit other nutrients. Carotenoids, like lycopene (after which this site is partially named) become more useful to us after longer cooking times.

Take home message

All of which means it’s better not to get too hung up on _how) you’re cooking your veg. The most important thing is that you eat vegetables and plenty of them. In fact, I’ve written these before, but I think they’re worth repeating – my top 5 guidelines on how to eat vegetables are:

1. The number one priority is to eat vegetables, no matter how they are prepared. Without at least five daily serves of vegetables your diet is deficient.
2. Eat a variety of vegetables. They all contain different vitamins and antioxidants. By eating a variety you are ensuring your diet is the best it can be.
3. As well as eating a variety of veg, prepare them in a variety of different ways. Eat some raw, but also have some cooked and cook them in different ways.
4. Most of the time try not to over-cook vegetables. Lightly steam, stir fry or microwave them.
5. Cook and eat vegetables with a small amount of oil, as this helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants.

Thanks for your question Melanie.

Further reading

• Effects of different cooking methods on health-promoting compounds of broccoli, Pubmed
• Fact or Fiction: Raw veggies are healthier than cooked ones, Scientific American
• My piece on What actually is five serves?
• The Choice review Are fresh vegies better?

5 comments 10 April, 2013

7 easy ways to get healthy meals on the table in 10 minutes

Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Easier eating

Today I have a guest post and recipe from Australian food blogger, Virtual Cookery School teacher and now cookbook author, Jules Clancy. Jules is the writer behind the Stonesoup blog. I’ve long been a fan of her sensible approach to eating well and, in particular, her creative and tasty salad recipes. Over to Jules.

Like the lovely Kathryn, I’m a big believer in the health benefits of eating as many vegetables as possible. And as a Limes & Lycopene reader, I’m assuming you’re a convert to.

When I was writing my book 5 Ingredients 10 Minutes one of the biggest questions I kept asking myself was ‘How can I include fresh vegetables in this meal and still keep to my 10 Minute time limit?’

The thing that surprised me the most, was how often I was able to use real fresh veg.

So today I wanted to share with you the top tricks I’ve learned for getting healthy meals on the table without spending hours peeling and chopping.

1. Don’t peel.

I’ve never been a big fan of peeling veg. It takes ages AND there tend to be loads of nutrients and flavour close to the skin. These days I just rinse or scrub and move on to the next step.

If you’re a fan of mashed potato invest in a potato ricer which allows you to boil the spuds in their skins then the ricer mashes and removes the skins all at once.

For things like pumpkin or beets, I roast with the skins on. It’s much quicker to remove them at the end, although often we just eat the skins too.

2. Skip the onions.

In spite of what some cookbooks would have you believe, it takes at least 10 minutes and often more like 15 to chop and soften onions. When I’m short on time I skip the onions all together. Sometimes I’ll replace them with a clove of garlic or two but more often I’ll throw in a handful of chopped chives at the end to give a hit of oniony goodness in a matter of seconds.

3. Let your food processor do the heavy lifting.

This does create more washing up, but food processors are often the quickest and easiest way to grate or slice veg.

4. Skip the cooking.

I’m far from being a raw food purist, but I do try and include raw veg in my diet every day. Not only is this beneficial for getting extra enzymes and heat-sensitive vitamins, it’s also quicker.

Apart from the obvious like raw salad greens or herbs, think about finely slicing or grating veg and serving them raw. Some of my favourites are shaved raw broccoli (with a mustardy dressing in salads), grated raw cauliflower to serve in place of steamed rice with curries or stir frys, shaved cabbage in salads and finely sliced raw bok choy – which has a surprisingly moreish crunchy texture.

5. Cheat.

Your body isn’t going to reject any nutrients you feed it because you haven’t prepared everything yourself from scratch. So don’t be afraid to cheat and use convenient options when it makes sense for you. I’m a big fan of things like pre washed salad leaves and scrubbed potatoes. I tend not to bother paying extra for pre chopped veg, but if it works for you go for it. I also use grilled veg from the deli from time to time.

The other way to cheat is to use convenient ingredients as a flavour highlight or sauce. Think about ingredients like commercial hummus, pesto, salsa, curry pastes or olive tapenade.

6. Don’t forget about frozen veg.

Frozen peas are a pantry must have but also consider things like frozen spinach, frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower, or even frozen veg ready to stir fry in your wok. Frozen veg are totally better for you than no veg and in many cases contain more nutrients than ‘fresh’ veg that has past its prime.

7. Use direct heat sources.

If you are cooking, direct heat like pan frying, stir frying or steaming is always much quicker than indirect heat like roasting or cooking under a grill. So when speed is of the essence, I reach for my wok or frying pan before anything else.

Simple Minestrone Soup

From 5 Ingredients 10 Minutes.

I love how the juices from the beans give this soup a dense soupy texture. They also add a rich slow cooked depth of flavour. You’ll think your adopted Italian nonna has been simmering the soup for hours rather than the quick 5 minutes you’ve actually allowed.

The recipe below gives instructions for a stove top, but there’s no reason you couldn’t whip it up in your work microwave. I’d skip the garlic and just pop the zucchini, beans, and tomatoes in a microwave safe container and nuke until it’s hot.

Enough for 2
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled & finely sliced
1 medium zucchini, finely sliced into coins
1 can tomatoes (400g / 14oz)
1 can cannellini beans (400g /14oz), or other white beans
4 tablespoons pesto, to serve

1. Heat a few tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan.
2. Cook zucchini and garlic over a medium high heat for a few minutes, or until the zucchini is starting to soften.
3. Add tomatoes, beans and the juice from the cans. Simmer for another 5 minutes or until the zucchini is cooked through.
4. Taste and season.
5. Serve hot with pesto on top.

Variations

vegan / dairy-free – replace the pesto with a handful of torn basil leaves or some basil oil and a handful of toasted pinenuts.

different veg – replace the zucchini with cavalo nero or cabbage as per the note above.

more substantial – add a few handfuls of cooked short pasta such as penne or add a few handfuls of torn rustic sourdough or ciabatta – a great way to use up stale leftover bread.

tomato alternative – replace the canned tomatoes with tomato puree or passata or commercial tomato pasta sauce, you’ll need about 1 1/2 cups.

Jules Clancy blogs about delicious, healthy meals that can be prepared in minutes over at www.thestonesoup.com. She’s also the author of the new cookbook ‘5 Ingredients 10 Minutes – Delicious, healthy meals for tired & hungry cooks’. For more information about the book go to www.5ingredients10minutes.com.

Thanks Jules!

4 comments 25 March, 2013

Teaming up with FromZero2Hero.com

Posted by kathryn in Blogging

For the last three years I’ve been training with DT Fitness. Three times a week I go to fitness in the park sessions with Donald and Alistair. I have never been a sporty person, indeed for most of my life exercise was something I did because it was good for me and definitely not because I wanted to. I’d do the bare minimum to be healthy and sometimes even that was a struggle.

Then three years ago I decided enough was enough, I wasn’t getting anywhere by myself, my fitness wasn’t improving and I needed outside help and support. So I signed up with DT Fitness, went along, with much trepidation to my first few sessions and have never looked back.

Since joining DT Fitness I have never been fitter. I’ve discovered a strength and endurance I didn’t know I had. I’ve found I love of running and am at the moment training for my second half marathon. I’ve realised I really like feeling fit and strong and although it took a while, I now actually enjoy exercise.

Anyway, Donald and Alistair have recently launched FromZero2Hero.com an online fitness program for people who struggle with or are unused to exercise. And because I like their approach, integrity and enthusiasm so much I’ve signed up to be the FromZero2Hero.com resident nutritionist and design their healthy eating program.

Their six week beginner’s fitness program – Learn to Fly – starts next week and Donald and Alistair have kindly offered Limes and Lycopene readers a discount. Simply past the discount code FRZE2 into the box on the sign up page and the program will cost just $10.

If my meagre maths skills are correct that’s a discount of about 65%?

Anyway, the discount means you’re paying just $10 for six whole weeks of really well designed, safe and effective fitness programs. Plus you’ll receive regular motivation, daily audio tracks and video support as well as access to their online community.

The main nutrition program starts in phase two, but I’ll be cropping up during Learn to Fly with some basic healthy eating advice and information.

1 comment 16 March, 2013

Quicklinks

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

Time for some quicklinks I think:

• Vegetable infographic: Firstly, I love the infographic above showing the variety there is in the vegetable world. It’s a thing of beauty which I can get lost in. In fact I’ve ordered a copy for our food wall at clinic
• A few blog posts ago I talked about acceptance and then I saw this piece, which made me pause. I find it remarkable and remarkably brave and more broadly, sad how rare and brave this level of honesty and acceptance is.
• Slow cooked kale: I love the look of this recipe which Jill from The Well Intentioned Cook pointed to on Twitter. Kale slow cooked with rosemary, onions and garlic would be quite wonderful.
• Omega 3s: Useful piece from Choice about Omega 3s – sources, supplements and whether they are over-hyped.
• Beetroot (of course): An amazing looking salad, containing many of my favourite foods – beetroot, raspberries, pomegranate molasses and figs. Yum, yum.
• Eating before exercise: Something I get asked a lot, should you eat before or after exercise, for more effective fat loss. Report on an interesting study. There’s some technical stuff in there, but a good summary of what to do right at the end.
• Pear and Vanilla Sorbet: I recently won an ice cream machine and have been having great fun with it. The next on my list is this recipe for pear and vanilla sorbet which I spotted the other day.
• Book report: Lovely review from Lucy on our An Honest Kitchen blog of a book called Japanese Farm Food.

3 comments 12 March, 2013

Mystery plants & fussy chickens

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

Over the last few weeks about five of these plants have appeared, in the middle of my backyard and I have no idea what they are.

They weren’t planted by me and from the positioning of them, I suspect they are some kind of seed which has been rejected by our fussy chickens. While chickens are supposed to eat up your food scraps, ours are a lot more discerning. With a whole garden to free range in and dig up they frequently casually reject all the treats and foods I assume they will love

At first, I thought they were sunflower seeds, although I found it hard to believe our greedy, sunflower seed loving birds would leave any of them free to sprout and grow. However, by the time the true leaves had come through I dismissed that idea.

And now I’m stumped.

I suspect it’s some kind of vegetable, as the chooks gobble up any grains and they rarely miss a skerrick of the food they love.

Any ideas?

Another garden pop-up is this plant, which is either a zucchini, pumpkin or possibly a watermelon? My money is on it being a pumpkin, after giving the chickens the seeds and flesh from the middle of several pumpkins, assuming they’d love the seeds. Which they didn’t.

While they may be fussy, the chickens are always excited about the possibility of food.

Meet Nellie who was convinced my mobile was something tasty and delicious if only I’d let her get to it.

Can you help me identify my mystery plant?

11 comments 05 March, 2013