Recipe catch up & 2 new recipes
FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS I wrote about the Ayurvedic view of meat, vegetarian and vegan diets here. The following are a mix of recipes. Four I have already posted, but I wanted to get them into the new recipe section, for ease of finding. I hope you enjoy them. I’d love to know what your favourite foods are, I can then create recipes with those ingredients. Let me know in the comments if there is a particular food/ingredient you would like me to showcase.
Some of my readers like to know what’s happening in my world when I put up food posts, the story that goes with them. These recipes were all made last winter when the grey, wet and cold seemed to be going on forever, so they were colourful, to cheer me up. My cells droop a bit towards the end of an English winter, and in the mid delve too. On a sunny day they lift right back up again, immediately! One of the ways I manage this is to create warm, colourful experiences in my life, and that includes the food I eat.
Today as I repost them and write these words, the sky is changeable. Bright blue early in the morning, then covered in waves of grey and silver with a smudge of sun behind half translucent clouds. Then, as I wrote about how my cells wake up and stop drooping when the sun shines, the clouds parted and now, as I laze in my boat writing these words, me and my boat are bathed in sunshine. And, although my boat is my sofa, I’m imaging I’m back in the sea at Trafalgar beach, bobbing up and down on the glistening tide sparkled by the sun.
It’s the simple things.
Recipes
Warming Masala
This is a very quick masala sauce, for those days when you need some comfort food but don’t have much time. You can serve this with any protein source you prefer. Sometimes I make it with chicken, other times I use lentils or another legume. Tofu and tempeh also work. If you know your Ayurvedic constitution, vata types do well with meat in their diet, while pitta and kapha types (if their digestion is okay with legumes), do well with the astringent taste legumes bring. For anyone following a low oxalate diet, meat is the best option, and use 2 teaspoons of tomato paste with 2 cups of vegetable stock, instead of the tinned tomatoes.
Ingredients (serves 2 small bowls)
1 can tinned tomatoes
1/2 tin coconut milk
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 small red onion chopped
1 courgette chopped
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 inches freshly grated ginger
Rock salt to season
Fresh lime
Method
Sauté the garlic and onion, when soft add the courgette and spices and sauté for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and coconut milk. Simmer for a few minutes.
Serve with your preferred protein and rice, and drizzle with fresh lime juice.
I hope you enjoy this simple and easy warming masala recipe.
Beetroot Chilli
Here is a chilli with recipe options for meat eaters/vegetarians/vegans. I had purple carrots, I’m loving cooking with them. I’ve just got some purple rain potatoes to chit for growing so later in the year I will have more lovely purple vegetables along with the minerals that come with that colour to cook with!
Ingredients (enough for 2)
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup minced beef (meat version for vata types, especially if experiencing imbalance)
2 cups aduki beans (vegetarian/vegan option)
1 large beetroot or 2 medium sized, chopped into small cubes and cooked in the oven in baking paper)
2 large purple carrots chopped into small cubes
1 tablespoon ghee (or sesame oil if vegan)
2 cups tomato passata
2 cups vegetable stock
1 inch fresh turmeric root grated
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon pepper to season
Rock salt to season
Method
Saute the onion and garlic until soft, then brown the mince if using. Then add all the spices and sauté for a minute or two. Next add all the other ingredients (including the aduki beans for vegetarian/vegan option). Simmer for about 30 minutes then season with rock salt.
I served with farro, biolive yogurt, mango chutney and fresh coriander.
Chicken and Barley
I made this meal in the spring for my lunch, using wild garlic leaves for the green vegetable, but you could use any vegetables you like, steamed to give a fresh lightness to the unctuous broth. I like to make more barley than I need so that I have a some supper pal ready prepped.
Ingredients (per person)
1 chicken breast (tempeh or white beans would be nice if you don’t eat meat)
1 cup barley cooked in stock (5 cups of stock in total, I used chicken stock)
Green leaves steamed
A handful of freshly chopped parsley
1 tablespoon butter
Rock salt
Black pepper
1/2 lemon and zest
Method
I simmer 1 cup of barley in 3 cups of stock. Hulled barley needs soaking for a few hours and takes about 45 minutes to cook. Pearled barley doesn’t need soaking and takes about 25 minutes to cook. This will make more that you need for one person but gives the option of saving some for a grain bowl later, or added to a soup and blitzed in the blender for a light supper. I take out the barley I’ll be using later and add another 2 cups of chicken stock to the pan with freshly chopped parsley and zest of 1/2 lemon, simmering this until the stick has reduced by half.
To avoid toughness I cook chicken breast what seems to be a full proof way. I tenderise by bashing with a jam jar, then sauté on fairly high in butter for 1 minute, turn over and sauté for another minute then turn the heat down to low, put a lid on and poach for 10 minutes, then take off heat and let sit with lid still on for another 10 minutes.
Then I served the barley broth and chicken with steamed wild garlic leaves.
Sweet Potato & Cardamon Mash
Ingredients (per person)
1 good sized sweet potato cut into chunks and cooked
2 teaspoons ghee
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamon
1/4 fresh lime juice
Rock salt to season
Method
Mash all the ingredients together.
Cannellini Bean & Cardamon Purée
Ingredients (per person)
1 cup cooked cannellini beans
1 tablespoon light tahini
Juice of 1/4 - 1/2 fresh lemon
2 teaspoons olive oil
Rock salt
Black pepper
Method
Blend all the ingredients tasting to see how much lemon juice, rock salt and black pepper you like; then pile up the wild rice, sweet potato and cardamon mash, and the cannellini purée.
Pesto Risotto
I love the combination of a very simple risotto and a pungent homemade pesto. This one was made in the spring when there were lots of wild garlic around, but you can replace the wild garlic leaves with basil.
You can just throw a pesto together so easily in a food processor, or make it in a pesto and mortar if you you would like to take more time – great for teaching kids. I put two handfuls of pumpkin seeds in the food processor, and roughly pulsed. Then I popped 2 cups of wild garlic leaves in along with a handful of parsley, and a handful of cheddar cheese, the juice of 1 lemon and enough olive oil to make a good consistency. Then I seasoned with rock salt. It wasn’t a traditional pesto – I used cheaper ingredients – but it was very tasty.
RISOTTO
Ingredients (per person)
1/3 cup arborio rice
1 1/2 - 2 cups stock
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
Rock salt and black pepper to season
Method
Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and stir the rice into it for a couple of minutes. Then add the wine and once absorbed add the stock little by little — add a little once absorbed add a little more until all is added. Then stir in the lemon zest and other tablespoon of butter, and season with salt and pepper.
You could mix a couple of spoonfuls of the pesto into the risotto, or put some pesto on the plate with the risotto on top, and any vegetables you feel like. I steamed some courgette slices and tender stem broccoli.
Beetroot Ragu with Sweet Potato & Avocado
Ingredients (per main sized portion)
2 cups of minced beef or adzuki beans (beans can be cooked or just soaked)
1 tablespoon ghee or butter
1 small chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 medium chopped beetroot (1 centimetre square-ish)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
3 cups stock
1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
A few sprigs of thyme
2 teaspoons tamari
Rock salt to season
Black pepper to season
Method
If using the mince brown this in the ghee then add the chopped onions and garlic. Continue to sauté until the onions and garlic are soft, on a medium heat (if not using the beef just sauté the onion and garlic). Then add the other ingredients and simmer for about an hour — until the liquid has reduced and everything is cooked. I served this Ragu with baked sweet potato, purple carrots, avocado, live yogurt and cilantro. It’s a great rainy day meal.
I hope you enjoy these recip
🌷🙏