Recipes for health & happiness

Vegetarian:

Asparagi Parmigiano-Reggiano (Fresh Asparagus with Parmesan)

Perfect Sweet Potato Wedges

Light meals:

Salad Puttanesca

Nicois-easy

Baking & Sweet things:

Ginger Date and Nut cake with pudding sauce

That gorgeous Berry Yoghurt cake

Asparagi Parmigiano-Reggiano

inspired by Art Hotel Orologio, Bologna

Dish description:

Steamed asparagus, dressed in the highest-quality olive oil, and sprinkled with fresh local parmesan cheese.

How to: 

Steam asparagus, dress it in highest-quality olive oil.  Sprinkle with fresh local parmesan cheese.  Enjoy it's sublime simplicity!

The Angels' opinion:  A tavola non si invecchia (You don't age while seated for a meal)  

Buon Appetito!

Perfect Sweet Potato Wedges

Gorgeous Sweet Potato Wedges.  Carries health warning:  You may never eat another french fry again.  Enough for 1 big plateful (serves 1)

What Samantha did right:
Don't peel the 2 large sweet potatoes (yams).  Wash, pat dry, and slice at an angle
Boil slices in salted water for 10 mins
Let drain on a clean tea towel.
Spread over a tin lined with baking paper; drizzle with olive oil
20 mins into cooking in @200 degrees/390F, sprinkle with salt and nutmeg
Cook a further 20 mins.

Serve with a fresh salad and hommus or tzatiki, if you like to dip...

~*~

Salad Puttanesca

It has only been after SO wanting to share this dish with you, and researching it a little to explain the gorgeous mood that it puts me in, that I realise it was a recipe for Puttanesca I laughed out loud at a few weeks ago- it was loosely translated as "Whore's Spaghetti"

I guess then, this makes this "Whore's salad"!

The story goes:  Puttanesca gets it's name because it was so quick and simple to make, prostitutes in southern Italy would quickly dash to make a bowl to revive themselves between clients.  As believable as this is (because it IS quick!), another description I found...  

"[Puttanesca is] a little salty (from the anchovies)... a little spicy (from the capers)... and a little fragrant (from the garlic & the olives)" 

... may also explain why the salty, spicy, fragrant ladies of Italian nights had a dish named after them.

This dish is rich in natural, health-giving fats and bursts with meditteranean summer flavour.  We are lucky enough to buy here (UK) a jar of "Puttanesca"- anchovies, capers and black olives preserved in olive oil- from Waitrose- I hope in Australia, Woolies; or State-side, Wholefoods or TraderJoes, sell a complete jar too! The speed of the dish is because all these fiddly yet delicious ingredients, a staple of Italian cuisine, can be added together, as in Italy.

Dark green leaves, diced cucumber, tomato and onion, generous squirt of lemon, and a protein serve like chicken breast (shown here) or- my favourite; it seems to intensify the flavour- tuna- complete the "Whores salad":  a delicious, body-enhancing dish.  

Enjoy!

How to:

Serves two for lunch or light dinner- no cooking required

• 4 handfuls baby spinach
• 2 handfuls mixed baby leaves and herbs
• 1/2 cucumber, de-seeded, diced
• 8 cherry vine ripened tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 onion, I like red here, diced,
• 150g each person of cooked chicken breast or tinned tuna, organic/sustainable wherever possible
• 4 tablespoons Puttanesca mix or 100g mixed black olives pitted; capers, drained; anchovies, drained and crushed; with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Do it now!

1. Mix the protein with Puttanesca mix and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Add all other ingredients and toss.  
3. Divide between two serving bowls, garnish with cracked black pepper, and serve.

OMG, that name!!! makes me giggle everytime.

~*~

Nicois-easy 

A salad to serve 1 greedy green monster.

Mixed salad leaves- 4 handfuls

Sustainable tuna in brine- 1 tin drained

4 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/2 cup peas (fresh or un-frozen)

1/2 onion or 3 shallots

1 baby pickled beet, drained & sliced

1 egg, hard boiled, quartered

2 tablespoons of roasted/toasted in frypan for few mins, sunflower seeds

dressing:

1 clove garlic, mashed with a pinch of salt

1 tbsp olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Pinch mixed herbs (dried in a jar purchased from supermarket)

Fresh cracked black pepper

How to-:

1. Add all the salad ingredients except the sunflower seeds and egg to a large bowl. Toss by hand.  
2. Shake all the dressing ingredients in a fresh jar.
3. Mix the dressing into the salad with a wooden spoon until well combined.  Pile in a large shallow bowl.
4. Arrange the egg quarters on top, sprinkle with the roasted sunflower seeds, and garnish with more black pepper.

Remember, beautifuls!  This is lose-it salad.  You aren't going to find a grounding, stabilising mood in eating this.  You'll be away with the fairies with green tara inspired lettuce leaves for wings!  You'll need a nourishing, grounding dinner in a few hours.

~*~

Ginger Date and Nut cake with pudding sauce

So begins a lovely new tradition:  the Sunday Lunch Share. 


First up, a perfectly easy old-fashioned way to bake away a late-weekend's fretted brow... just mix and make this gorgeous, "take anywhere", moist, dense cake;AND it becomes a proper date pudding when the sauce is poured over.  Date pudding = Divine!  It does contain gluten, dairy, nuts & sugar.  Do share your healthy exchanges for these.  


Dates are one of the most wonderful ingredients in a cook's cupboard- their inherent sweetness help minimise the added sugar (cut it by a half), and they are rich in iron and B vitamins.


Ginger Date and Nut cake with pudding sauce


1 cup water
1/2 cup dark brown/molasses sugar
2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped dates
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/4 cups wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts- walnuts and hazelnuts are great here
Pinch ground ginger
Pinch salt
1/4 cup stem or candied ginger (optional)


for the sauce: 
1/2 cup butter
4 tbsp honey
1/2 cup cream

1. Combine the water, sugar, baking soda, butter or oil, and dates in a saucepan.  Simmer for 1 min.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and let cool slightly.
2. Add the beaten eggs and mix.  
3. Sift in the flour, salt, spice.  Add the nuts and ginger if using.  Mix well. 

Bake in a preheated oven for 35 mins at 180degrees/ 350F or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  I used a square pan- it would look lovely in a ring pan- I always line my pans in baking paper for easy escape.  Allow to cool in the pan for 10mins before lifting out.

• To make the sauce (not shown), bring all the ingredients to a simmer in a saucepan.  Sliced the cake, tip over the sauce, and garnish with lemon zest, shaved fresh ginger, and sliced strawberries.

That Gorgeous Berry Yoghurt Cake- only better for you!

It's one of our picnic favourites after I spied this pretty pretty cake in the co-op magazine.  Here you'll find a more wholesome version as we swap butter for coconut oil, plain flour for light brown and possibly gluten free, and white sugar for granulated stevia.  Lemon, berries and yoghurt make this moist, sweet and sour... perfect for a summer treat you won't regret. 1/3 cup coconut oil (solid) 2/3 cup caster sugar or Stevia 3 free-rage, fresh eggs 2 tablespoons natural yoghurt Zest of one lemon and 1tsp of juice 1 cup light brown self-raising flour- swap for gluten free if you're deft! 1tsp baking powder 200g mixed berries- fresh or un-frozen How to:

Cream oil and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.  
Mix through the yoghurt, lemon zest and juice. 
Sift flour and baking powder into mixture and fold in gently. Stir in fruit. Pour into a baking-paper lined loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven for 60 mins at 170degrees/ 335F or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  If the cake is becoming too brown, cover with foil the last ten minutes.

Serve piled with fresh berries and accompanied by a dollop of natural yoghurt.

~*~

To judge of how good ANY dish is for you, you can ask yourself these questions:

1.  Is it made from natural ingredients?

2.  Does it include fresh fruit and veg? 

3.  Does it avoid most irritants- gluten (wheat), nuts, dairy?

4.  Is it homemade; and made with love?

Be well!

With love, 

Samantha.

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