Lemon Pesto Dressed Broccoli with Olive Tofu

Now then, this won’t do much for debunking the myth that vegetarians only eat greens and tofu, but it happens to be one of my favourite light meals.

When I want to get my broccoli on, I steam a whole head – including the peeled stems – and add lemon juice and salt to it. In my opinion, good quality broccoli needs little more, but I am a broccoli head. Sometimes I have to be careful not to steam my own head. *Titter* This version is a little more elaborate – the lemon juice had hemp oil and veggie pesto added to make a tangy dressing, and just before the broccoli was cooked, I threw some cubes of olive tofu into the steamer to heat them up. Man, I love this olive tofu: it really makes giving up cheese a lot easier. I thoroughly recommend you explore this savoury soya delight: http://www.veggiestuff.com/acatalog/taifun-organic-olive-tofu.html

High in protein, low in carbs and fat. Which means you get to have cake for pudding. Score!

Banana & Cherry Slices

I've been considering cutting down my refined sugar intake. Or maybe cutting it out completely. I met someone else who is already doing this and it sort of re-enforced my thinking. So, when I went skipping (see my last post) and found 2 boxes or cherries, 6 bananas, and lots of oranges, I decided it was a good time to start some sugar-free baking. The recipe is incredibly simple and I really enjoyed these treats. They have a lovely subtle sweetness with more character than the sugary buns I had been baking. Now I'm sold on this sugar-free lark, and well on my way. Here's what I did.

I took the pips out of the cherries, squeezed the juice out of a few oranges and a lemon, and blended this all in a bowl with the 6 peeled bananas (like a lovely, thick smoothie). I added flour until I got a nice sloppy consistency, and I chopped up the other box of cherries and threw them in to get a nice chunky sweetness in the slices. I added a bit of oil and some nutmeg and cinammon. I poured the whole mixture onto a baking tray, thinly so it would cook within a reasonable amount of time.  Then I sprinkled some sunflower seeds on top for a laugh. And that's it. Let them cool and they're even nicer. Sugar-free and vegan. Beautiful.

- Dara

Plum, Kiwi and Apple Salad.

This is really tasty!

I think that this salad encapsulates what I want to do with this blog: change people's attitudes to food so that we eat consciously and flexibly.

This is the result of needing to use up fruit. I'm not a big fruit eater... As far as I'm concerned if you're hungry you eat food that will fill you up, (i.e. not fruit), if you're not hungry you don't eat. So when I eat fruit I prefer it in things to just on its own. Apart from apples; they're wonderful and great. Feel free to try to change my mind on this dismissive attitude to fruit - I'm trying to eat more of it.

Fruit is a blast of sugar (natural or no, it's still sugar). Sugar is a simple carbohydrate which makes your blood sugar levels disco disco, so it's really good to eat it with some protein so that your energy levels don't disco disco crash. Protein is more of a... erm... a tango. If we're sticking with the dancing analogy, then slow dances of protein and complex carbs are better for filling you up for longer, and for keeping your energy stable. The moral of the story is - eat nuts/seeds/cheese with fruit.

Right, so how to make this salad is:

1. Grate a load of apples and mix in some lemon juice. (Otherwise it'll go brown and icky.)

2. Throw in some sunflower seeds.

3. Cut up some plums and kiwis and mix them with the apple and seeds.

If there's any apple left over then it'll go really nicely with grated carrot to make a salad.

Apple, walnut and celery salad

This is YUMMY SCRUMMY. If you like lettuce, apple, celery, walnuts and lemon juice. Those are the ingredients, you see.

If it had mayonnaise then it would probably be called a Waldorf salad, but I find that mayonnaise clogs things up and lemon juice is much.... zestier.

So throw it all together and enjoy.

I had mine with Dara's fresh brown bread, a huge dollop of cottage cheese, and a large dollop of hummus. YUMMY SCRMMY indeed.

There's no oil on it and the lemon will stop the apple oxidising, so it should keep until lunchtime if made in the morning. Remember: SAFCSN (Stay Away From Chains Selling Non-food.)

Dara's Houmous

Is it houmous or hummus? Or Hummus or Hamas? Whatever you call it, it sure is tasty, and it's pretty easy to make as well. I shall guide you now in making Dara's Houmous. Here are the main ingredients:

Chickpeas

Garlic

Olive/ Veg oil

Lemon Juice
Light Tahini
Frank's Red Hot Sauce

First, soak some chickpeas in the fridge over night. Barely half-fill the containers (I just use washed out jars) with chickpeas, then fill them up the rest of the way with water and put the lid on. They'll expand overnight. Alternatively, you can just use pre-soaked, tinned chickpeas, but soaking your own is normally cheaper. The next day, boil them up in some fresh water until they're nice and tender. It may take a while, maybe half an hour or more, or nothing at all for tinned chickpeas. But do make sure they are nice and tender, as Gwen tells me under-cooked chickpeas (and other pulses) make you fart. Personally, I don't know what she's talking about. But... do watch out for that

So, when they're nice and tender, strain them off. Add them to a bowl along with lots of crushed garlic (the amount is up to you - I'm a fiend), a small bit of tahini (not too much - it's bitter), and a dash of oil and a bit of water to start.  Blend them up if you have a blender - it will make things much smoother - or if not just mash them up. You can gradually add more oil and water to the mixture (more oil is better, depending on how healthy you want to be) and continue mixing until you're happy with the consistency. Don't throw the liquids all in at once, as your houmous may end up too watery or oily (if it does though, don't despair - oily houmous makes a good base for a curry). Now, squeeze in some lemon juice to your taste. As well as giving it a zesty twist, the citric acid also helps preserve the houmous, or so Gwen tells me. Then add salt and pepper to taste. And, the secret ingredient of Dara's houmous, a secret no longer - add lashings of Frank's Red Hot Sauce! Oh yeah.  Mix it all up and you're done! Good work!

You generally get a jar of houmous per jar of soaked chickpeas used, so you can just store your houmous in those jars in the fridge for a few days (4 - 5, maybe more) till it goes stinky. Not that I need to tell you how to serve your delicious houmous, but serve your delicious houmous on some bread, in a sandwich, or with some crisps. Sometimes I just eat it from the jar. That's completely normal, too.

Try also: caramelised onion houmous. Same recipe, but with onions fried in oil with sugar.

- Dara