Archive for July, 2009

Broad Bean and Mint Soup

Published on July 30, 2009 in food, nutrition and recipes. 0 Comments

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Broad Beans

Broad beans are a popular summer staple here in Britain, so it’s no surprise they’ve made regular appearances in our weekly veg box from Riverford Organic Veg. I have little experience with these podded beasts, so last night I decided to take the plunge and try a broad bean soup off of the Riverford website.

Dinner: Broad Bean and Mint SoupThe recipe appealed for both its inclusion of mint and its short list of ingredients. However, what it lacked in complication it made up for in prep time. The soup itself was a cinch, but podding the beans and then removing their tough outer skins was a beast. It’s definitely an exercise to be completed over a good podcast (or better yet, with the help of a few friends).

How to de-skin broad beans:

  1. Pod the beans.
  2. Cook them in boiling water for 1 minute.
  3. Plunge them into cold water, to cool them.
  4. Make a nick in the top of each bean, with your thumb nail.
  5. Gently squeeze the bright green bean out of the skin.

Fiddly, but worth it. The soup was fab, and everything (except for the mint) was made with ingredients from the box.

Broad Bean and Mint Soup

This recipe comes from Anna Ross’s Green Cuisine, available for purchase on Amazon and Riverford Organic Veg.

500g (1lb) shelled broad beans
2 small onions
2 carrots
2 tbsp oil
1 litre (2 pts) vegetable stock
2 tbsp fresh mint
salt & pepper
  1. Peel and chop the onions and carrots and saute in hot oil for 10-15 minutes
  2. Stir in the broad beans and stock, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Stir in the chopped mint, transfer to a liquidiser and blend until smooth.

At Last, We Have a BBQ

Published on July 24, 2009 in Country Life, food, photos and recipes. 1 Comment

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

The Fruit (er, Veg) of Our First Proper BBQ

Tim Gets His Grill On

Now that we have a place with an outdoor patio, I can finally enjoy the grill season in all its blackened glory. We’ve grilled the last four nights in a row, and some of those nights were even warm enough to dine al fresco.

When I tell people how much I like to grill, they often ask “what the hell does a vegetarian put on the grill?” Veggie burgers barely scrape the surface of possibilities. There are endless ways to cook vegetables on the grill and better still, it’s one of the best ways to make almost any vegetable taste really awesomely good. For a well-rounded, nutritious meal, add tofu and spuds to the mix.

At the bare minimum, all you need to grill vegetables is olive oil, salt and pepper. That’s all I’ve been using this week. Here are the results:

Grilled seitan, zucchini, tomato, and eggplant with boiled new potatoes:

Tim's Meal

Grilled eggplant and mushrooms with pesto and fresh parsley:

Grilled Eggplant and Mushrooms

Sandwich of grilled zucchini, onion, mushroom, red bell pepper, avocado and tomato with grilled sweetcorn

Dinner: Grilled Veggie Sandwich and Sweetcorn

Chargrilled broccoli with chili and garlic

Chargrilled Broccoli witth Chilli and Garlic

The chargrilled broccoli was a revelation - I found the recipe in Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, a book that makes heavy use of grilled vegetables and I predict will become a regular read now that I have a bbq. The dish is simple to repair and the chargrilling really takes the broccoli to a whole new level. If you’re looking to cram more veggies in your diet but you don’t know how to make them taste good, give this recipe a go, and check out Yotom Ottolenghi’s blog for more ideas.

Chargrilled Broccoli with Chili and Garlic

This is adapated from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. The only change I made is cutting down the chili to one, but feel free to use more or less according to your spice tolerance.

2 heads of broccoli
115ml olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 mild red chillies, thinly sliced
coarse sea salt and black pepper
thin slices of lemon (with skin) or toasted flaked almonds to garnish

Prepare the broccoli by separating it into florets. Fill a large saucepan with plenty of water and bring it to the boil. Throw in the broccoli and blanch for 2 minutes only. Don’t be tempted to cook it any longer! Using a large slotted spoon, quickly transfer the broccoli to a bowl full of ice cold water. Drain in a colander and allow to dry completely. In a mixing bowl, toss the broccoli with 45ml of the olive oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Get the grill nice and hot and throw on the broccoli. Turn them over so they get char marks all over. When the broccoli is finished, put them back in the mixing bowl.

Place the rest of the oil in a small saucepan with the garlic and chillies. Cook them over a medium heat until the garlic just begins to turn golden brown. Be careful not to let the garlic and chilli burn - remember, they will keep on cooking even when off the heat.

Pour the oil, garlic and chilli over the hot broccoli and toss together well. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve warm or at room temperature. You can garnish the broccoli with lemon or almonds just before serving.

Video Tour of Orchard Cottage

Published on July 22, 2009 in Country Life. 0 Comments

I am going to have to be very careful about not becoming totally annoying about this whole cottage thing. The thing is, I love it. Which makes me sound like a bit of a dork in this video but oh well. Here’s a tour of the place, pre-unpacking.

Getting Stuff Delivered

Published on July 21, 2009 in Country Life. 0 Comments

Riverford Organic Fruit and Veg Box

One of the things we’ve been looking forward to about living in the country is having stuff delivered: food, furniture, appliances, more food. There’s something special about having people bring stuff right to my doorstep. I couldn’t really do this in London because we had no doorstep - any parcels left at our building’s door would have been stolen within minutest. But here at the barn, we can finally enjoy the privelidge of home delivery, which is good, because we have lots of stuff to buy.

Today had our first batch of stuff delivered: an organic fruit and vegetable box from Riverford Organic Vegetables. The whole lot cost about £23, and it we received:

  • 6 bananas
  • 6 apples
  • 8 apricots
  • 9 clementines
  • 125g blackcurrants
  • 1 lettuce
  • 5 tomatoes
  • 1 cabbage
  • 5 portobello mushrooms
  • 1 cucumber
  • 3 courgettes
  • 2 red pepper
  • 300g sugar snap peas
  • 1 bunch carrots
  • ~30 pods of broad beans
  • 9 onions
  • 15 kg potatoes

It’ll be interesting to see how much fruit and veg we actually get through in a week. I’m guessing we’ll need about twice as much, including some extra items like garlic, avocado and salad stuff. But that’s okay: food is good and I’d rather give my money to these people than to a big giant supermarket.

On the importance of good sleep

Published on July 21, 2009 in Country Life, Personal and freedom. 0 Comments

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Gizmo on the ProLite 4 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!.jpg

We’re less than a week into our new place in the countryside and already I can feel the difference. Compared to London, one of the most noticeable differences is the noise (or lack thereof). Without the constant interruption of sleep noise, I’m finally enjoying the most restful sleep I’ve had in AGES! And no more earplugs! The remarkable thing is that we don’t even have a bed yet - I’m sleeping on the floor on a Therm-a-Rest Sleeping Mat, and will be for the next couple weeks, until our pimp new Superking-sized bed arrives. But even on the floor I’m sleeping much better than I did in London, and this is definitely feeding into the amount of energy I have during the day. It feels great to be rested. Now, I’m hoping that this great rest will inspire me to get out and explore the countryside, or at least, write a future post entitled “On the importance of good waterproof gear.” It rains a lot in England!

Photo credit: nguy0833

Orchard Cottage Pre Move-In

Published on July 16, 2009 in movies. 1 Comment

The time has come! This week we move into our new place in the country. Here’s a little video of the cottage in its empty state. I can’t wait to fill it with all the comforts of home!

Monica @ The Draught House in Austin

Published on July 9, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Photos from my Chicago trip

Published on July 9, 2009 in Personal, photos and travel. 0 Comments

Anything I Got Ain't Worth Your Life

I’ve been having an awesome trip to the States this summer and have actually managed to keep up with uploading my photos. Above is one of the highlights from my trip to Woodsmoke a couple weeks ago.

Click here to see the rest of my photos from Chicago.

Vegan Breakfast Tacos

Published on July 6, 2009 in food and recipes. 0 Comments

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Vegan Breakfast Taco

One of the things I’ve missed most about living in Austin is the food. In addition to the wide availability of delicious fresh produce, I adore Tex-Mex - salsa, guacamole, chili, and of course, tacos! Yesterday I revisited an Austin tradition: the breakfast taco. Breakfast tacos are traditionally filled with meat, eggs and cheese, but I created a vegan version using tofu. It was incredible! And when filled with yummy veggies and avocado, these tacos are actually pretty good for you, compared to their meaty counterparts which are usually grease bombs. These tacos are filled with high quality protein from the tofu and healthy fats from the avocado and olive oil. Most importantly, they’re delicious, as long as you get the ingredients right.

The key to delicious breakfast tacos is quality salsa and good tortillas. I used Native Texan Brand Chipotle Salsa, delicious, but you could equally make your own.

This was a totally random creation, so my ingredients are estimates.

Vegan Breakfast Tacos

These ingredients are estimations, so feel free to adjust the amount and variety of veggies to suit your tastes. You may want more or less jalapeno depending on your spice tolerance and the heat level of your salsa. Just don’t forget to use good salsa - none of that Pace junk!

1 tsp olive oil
1/4 green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 cup firm tofu, crumbled
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 heaped tablespoons salsa
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
salt
3 tortillas (corn or flour)
1/2 avocado, diced
  1. In a frying pan, heat up the olive oil on medium heat. Add the green pepper, jalapeno and onion and saute until the onion just starts to brown.
  2. Add the tofu, garlic, salsa and a sprinkle of salt and saute for about 3-5 minutes, until the tofu has cooked a bit but isn’t overly dry. Check the flavor and add more salt if necessary.
  3. Remove the tofu from heat and stir in the cilantro. Divide the tofu mixture into the three tortillas and top each with diced avocado. Sprinkle the avocado with a little bit of salt, add more salsa if desired and serve!

Makes 3 tacos. Per taco (made with corn tortilla): 193 Calories; 9.5g Protein; 10.7g Total Fat; 18.5g Total Carbohydrates; 0mg Cholesterol; 141mg Sodium; 5.2g Fiber.

Vegan Breakfast Taco Filling

Want to know more about breakfast tacos? Here are a couple articles I enjoyed, both of which discuss the traditional breakfast taco, but even vegans might enjoy reading about the history of this delicious food and where you can find tasty samples in Austin:

Kombucha: My New Favorite Bevvy

Published on July 4, 2009 in food, nutrition and travel. 0 Comments

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Cactus Colada Kombucha

Tim and I just got into Austin where we are staying in a wonderful house owned by our equally wonderful hostess. On top of being a retired massage therapist and all-around nice (and enviably hard) human being, she also home brews kombucha, a fermented beverage made from tea and live cultures. She left a jug of the stuff in the fridge for us (along with a few beers and some ginger ale) - what a warm welcome!

I’d never had kombucha before but it was the perfect tonic for after a flight. Slightly sweet and carbonated, kombucha tastes almost alcoholic, and I wondered whether I should be gulping the stuff down right before we were to meet some friends for dinner. I’ve since learned that kombucha is only mildly alcoholic due to the fermentation process (this brew was about 0.5% abv) and moreover, has a lot of potential health benefits. For example, since kombucha is made with bacteria cultures (much like yogurt) it is thought to aid in digestion. Other health claims include stimulating the immune system, preventing cancer and improving liver function.

None of these claims have been verified, of course, but the important thing is that it tastes delicious, is totally natural and is so refreshing, especially in this 100-degree Austin heat! It makes me want to try brewing my own when I get back to England.

Kombucha tea: What are the health benefits? [MayoClinic.com]
What is Kombucha? [wisegeek.com]