Kiwi fruits: “a treasure of nutritional bounty”

My go-to nutritional guide book is Dr. Michael Sharon’s “Nutrients A-Z”*. This user-friendly manual is excellent as every entry is concise and enlightening, and you don’t need a PhD in organic chemistry.

So when I looked up kiwi fruit (or Chinese gooseberry), I was struck by two phrases: “a treasure of nutritional bounty” and “one of the acidic fruits that combines well with protein.” Ideal, I thought, as I love them. And I love combining them with yoghurts, especially when I have no time to cook.

Today’s lunch was two kiwis, six large strawberries and one mandarin orange, sliced up and mixed with a small tub of protein yoghurt. Quick, tasty, filling – and very healthy, as kiwis provide more vitamin C than oranges and more fibre than apples.

One kiwi fruit supplies up to 70mg of vitamin C, or just 5mg less than the average US recommended daily amount for women (it’s 90mg for men). This vitamin cleanses the body and helps boost resistance to disease. An average kiwi also supplies around 250mg of potassium, making it suitable for people with high blood pressure.

Kiwis’ fibre and mucilage content, and its special enzyme called actinidin, can also help with digestion and constipation. Mucilage is a jelly-like substance found in plants and is a rich source of dietary fibre (and is not to be confused with “fuselage”, which contains carbon fibre ;)).

This fruit provides around 9.2 grammes of fibre – more than a third of my daily need

Dietary fibre acts as a laxative, makes you feel full, combats too much cholesterol and sugar in the blood, and can help reduce obesity. Fibre is essential (and, judging by the above list, desirable) and we need to eat 25-30 grammes of it every day. So, as the average kiwi contains around 2.1, my lunch provided around 9.2 grammes, or more than a third of my daily need.

Kiwis should yield slightly to pressure (not be rock hard), are best peeled just before eating, and are nutritionally best when eaten raw. So my lunch idea was a nutritionally sound one. A fat-free yoghurt would also have worked.

So, if all that appeals, then get peeling a kiwi!

*Nutrients A-Z (A User’s Guide to Foods, Herbs, Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements)
Dr. Michael Sharon, Carlton Books, 2009. ISBN 978 1 84732 263 0

The post Kiwi Fruit and Fibre appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.

Creme Dubarry: elegant by name, simple by ingredients, this recipe for cauliflower soup is a delicious classic

There are few culinary contrasts between a dish’s elegant French name and its common-or-garden contents than Creme Dubarry. I wonder if Louis XV’s lavish mistress would have appreciated her title becoming the moniker of cauliflower soup. Some consider it an allusion to her powdered wigs, whose many layers of curls resembled cauliflower curds.

For all its simplicity, Creme Dubarry is a wonderful, nutritious and subtle soup. It is also worth the effort involved in making it. This soup can also be eaten as a neutral meal by food combiners if vegetable stock cubes are used instead of chicken stock, as well as creme fraiche instead of milk.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: Four

Ingredients:
20g butter
2 medium leeks (white parts only, finely chopped)
1 head of cauliflower (hard stalks removed and florets finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (peeled and chopped)
1 vegetable or chicken stock cube
550 ml water
250ml UHT skimmed milk (or 100g creme fraiche and 100ml extra water for food combiners)

Method:
1. Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat
2. Add the leeks to the pan and sweat them with the lid on
3. When the leeks are translucent and soft, add the chopped cauliflower and garlic, and sweat with the lid on for five minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Heat the water in a kettle, measure into a jug and dissolve the stock cube in it
5. Add the warm stock to the pan, then add the milk or creme fraiche
6. Cook on a low heat for 30 minutes until the cauliflower is soft and mushy
7. Liquidise with a hand blender and then pass through a sieve
8. Reheat and season to taste

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Roast vegetable medley: a cheap, easy and tasty way to eat at least your five a day

One inspired marketing idea that supermarkets have devised for selling vegetables is to batch up a few of them, price them reasonably, and sell them as an ideal choice for a stew or casserole.

For the supermarkets, it’s an easy profit and appeals to the British love of “Sunday dinner” vegetables. For the consumer it’s a cheap, easy and tasty way of achieving their five a day.

The Casserole Vegetable Selection in Sainsbury’s is a good example. This is around 750 grammes of nutritious root vegetables – usually a swede, four carrots, a parsnip and an onion – and costs just a pound. For variety, other root veggies can be bought, such as beetroot or turnip.

All I need to add is some olive oil, rosemary and garlic pepper – and a large roasting pan, as I love my roots roasted.

As complex recipes go, this is on a par with making toast. And the result is a medley of healthy, moreish roast vegetables that can be added to any protein or carbohydrate meal, or eaten on their own as a hearty neutral snack.

So the benefits of this simple marketing trick make it well worth mentioning!

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves: two-three

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200 C / 180 C fan assisted / 400 F / Gas mark 6
2. Wash the vegetables, peel and chop them into 2-3cm cubes, and spread them across the pan
3. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the top and add some herbs and spices (my current favourites being garlic pepper and rosemary)
3. Put the tray in the oven for 20 minutes, then remove and turn the vegetables over to ensure they are evenly cooked, and then put them back in the oven for another 20 minutes or until they are cooked through
4. Remove from the oven and serve

And if you like your vegetables cooked Italian style, then try the recipe for Paul’s Mediterranean Roast Veggies!

The post Medley of Roast Vegetables appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.

Red pepper soup: delicious, moreish and rich in vitamin C

The British hospital visitor takes a bunch of grapes for a patient. Jewish people feed chicken soup “penicillin” to the ailing. While a Polish friend cured my chronic sore throat with a mixture of grated apple, honey and sugar. Every nation has its traditional medicinal foods.

Many of these cures contain vitamin C, especially to help people overcome colds or ‘flu. But one of the richest sources of this vitamin actually comes from peppers, otherwise known as bell peppers or capsicums.

Like tomatoes, peppers are classified as fruits but treated in culinary terms as vegetables. A hundred grammes of raw pepper contains 97 per cent of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C. As the average pepper weighs between 113-142 grammes, then just one pepper is more than sufficient.

Vitamin C is easily lost through cooking so raw peppers remain the most nutritious. But this recipe ensures a lot of the liquids which the peppers are cooked in are retained as the lid can be left on the pan most of the time. So this red pepper soup should have some vital vitamin C as well as being extremely tasty!

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves: Two

Ingredients:
2 large red peppers (deseeded and finely chopped)
½ onion (finely chopped)
1 small courgette (finely chopped with the skin on)
1 medium tomato (deseeded and finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (peeled and chopped)
20g butter
2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
Vegetable stock cube
500ml water
1 level teaspoon of sweet paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Peel and finely chop the onion and courgette. Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Deseed and chop the tomato
2. Remove and discard the seeds and stalks of the red peppers. Chop the peppers into 1cm pieces
3. Boil the water in a kettle and measure out 500ml. Dissolve the stock cube in the water
4. In a small saucepan, boil two tablespoons of white wine vinegar and reduce it completely. Add the vegetable stock and set aside
5. Over a low heat, sweat the onion and pepper pieces in 20g of butter for five minutes
6. Add the courgette, tomato and garlic, and sweat for a further five minutes
7. Add the reduced vinegar and vegetable stock and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a level teaspoon of sweet paprika and stir
8. Liquidise the soup until very fine and sieve
9. Season to taste

The post Red Pepper Soup appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.

The good stuff: healthy and tasty ratatouille that food combiners can eat either as a neutral meal or add to proteins or carbohydrates

Ratatouille is a wonderful and versatile dish. It’s simple to make, tasty and healthy, and food combiners can eat it on its own as a neutral meal or add it to proteins or carbohydrates. To save time, this recipe uses pre-chopped tomatoes

Preparation and cooking time: 50 minutes
Serves: Two

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 large (or 2 small) aubergine
1 large (or 2 small) courgette
1 red pepper
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 x teaspoons of thyme (fresh or dried)
Tomato purée
Olive oil
Seasoning to taste

Method:
1. Wash and pat dry all the ingredients (except any dried herbs!)
2. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic
3. Heat up a tablespoonful of olive oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat
4. Sweat the onion and garlic; don’t let them burn
5. Meanwhile, chop the aubergine into 2cm chunks, add to the pan, stir in, then put on a lid
6. Meanwhile, de-seed and chop the pepper into 2cm pieces, add to the pan, stir in and replace the lid
7. Meanwhile, chop the courgette into 2cm chunks, add to the pan, stir in and replace the lid
8. Add the thyme plus a little black pepper, stir and replace the lid
9. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, stir in, add 75ml of cold water, replace the lid and leave to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes to prevent burning
10. After 10 of the 15 minutes, remove the lid to allow excess moisture to evaporate. If the ratatouille needs thickening, add a tablespoonful of tomato purée. Stir occasionally
11. Remove from the heat and serve!

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Baked apples: a light and healthy take on a fruity winter treat

Then I remembered that my grandmother, an avid food combiner, used to have one ready for me when I arrived home from school in the winter.

Fantastic! A healthier, low-fat alternative to processed snacks to tide me over until dinner. And a doddle to prepare.

This version uses entirely natural ingredients and is gluten-free. It can also be made with fruit sugar instead of honey to form a completely fruit-based meal for strict combiners, and with coconut butter and coconut yoghurt for non-dairy people.

Either way, fill your core!

Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 1. Double each ingredient for two people, x 3 for three, etc.

Ingredients:
1 cooking apple
1 tablespoonful of dried mixed fruit
1 tablespoonful of honey/fruit sugar
Butter/coconut butter
Plain, Greek or coconut yoghurt

Method:
1. Turn on the oven to 400F/200C/180C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 6
2. Wash and dry each apple thoroughly. Remove the cores with a corer or knife, and place the apples in a baking dish
3. Mix the dried fruit and sugar together in a bowl. Pack the hollow centre of each apple with the mixture. Otherwise, fill the apples with the dried fruit and drizzle the honey into the centre
4. Add a knob of butter to the top of each apple to prevent the skin burning and to add to the flavour
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until the apples are cooked through
6. Allow two minutes to cool. Share between individual bowls. Add a couple of tablespoonfuls of yoghurt to each apple and serve

The post Baked Apples appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.

Healthy Snacks: Use those peckish in-between-meal times to top up with fruit, nuts, seeds and berries

Most diets recommend eating three meals a day to ensure the body’s ongoing functions are steadily supplied with energy and nutrients.

These are topped up by snacks between meals, which are the chances to earn a few nutritional bonus points: when fruit, nuts, seeds and natural yoghurt can work their magic.

So why not make your elevenses your fruitses? It’s long enough after breakfast and far enough to go until lunch.

And, unless you have been caning the caffeine or sneaking the biccies, you should hopefully avoid indigestion when hitting the fruit bowl.

Enjoy your apples, pears, oranges, clementines, tangerines, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries and any other berries you fancy. And, of course, don’t forget the figs!

Just keep it entirely a fruit fest. And allow at least 30 minutes for it to digest before eating anything else, to be on the safe side.

Otherwise, I have found an alternative snack of natural yoghurt, plus a few seeds or Brazil nuts, is a healthy boost and can soothe an acidic system.

Indigestion? Not for a long time!

The post The Magic of Snacks appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.

When I was a child, the word “salad” meant enormous, unconquerable lettuce leaves, insipid slices of cucumber, half a tomato, a hard-boiled egg and lots of vinegar-rich salad cream to add some flavour, any flavour, or reduce the scary aftertaste of “garden”.

Then I’d ask when dinner was ready.

Happily, we have progressed and now salad can be enjoyed rather than endured. There are lots of variations but this is my favourite – the five-leaf super salad – which can be eaten as a neutral meal on its own, as a starter, or with protein or starches. Fill your wellies

Preparation time: 10 minutes before cooking
Cooking time: None
Serves: 1+

Ingredients:
Curly kale
Spinach
Rocket
Red chard
Ruby red chard
Cucumber (one very versatile superfood)
Vine cherry tomatoes (and these are just super)
Pine nuts
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon juice or cider vinegar
Black pepper

Method:
1. Wash and chop up the salad leaves, unless it is pre-prepared
2. Wash and slice up the cucumber and halve the tomatoes
3. Arrange the leaves, cucumber and tomato slices in individual salad bowls
4. Add a handful of pine nuts to each bowl
5. Add the oil, juice or vinegar, and black pepper, according to your taste

The post Five-Leaf Super Salad appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.

Super Roots, Super Tasty: An energy-boost stew full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre

When my mother used to tell me that she was making her famous veggie stew for dinner, I used to run the two miles home from school to get in first.

It requires a pressure cooker but the purchasing or borrowing of one is worth it for the taste and all the nutrients.

Root vegetables are low in fat, loaded with antioxidants, iron, vitamins A, B and C, as well as fibre, and are nifty energy boosters.

This quick recipe can also become carbohydrate-based by adding potatoes, which thicken the broth, or protein-based by adding pieces of pre-cooked chicken.

Preparation time: 10 minutes before cooking
Cooking time: Four minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Enough root vegetables to half-fill the pressure cooker, including:
Carrots
Parsnips
Swede
Squash
Turnip
Beetroot
Onion
Leeks
Celery
Cabbage (though not a root vegetable)
Originally a 400g tin of Heinz Cream of Tomato soup but any low-sodium thick tomato soup of your choice
Filtered water

Method:
1. Scrub and chop up all the required vegetables into 3 square centimetre chunks and half-fill the pressure cooker
2. Add in a pint/600ml of filtered water
3. Cook for four minutes
4. Open the lid and release the steam
5. Pour in the can of tomato soup and stir well
6. Serve the root vegetable stew as a starter or a main course

The post Mama Jen’s Super Root Vegetable Stew appeared first on Reverse Time Machine.