Category Archives: recipe

Porridge with heart

Posted on March 1, 2008 | 1 comment

Porridge with heart-shaped cinnamon and nuts

I love porridge so much I could marry it – it is good for me and treats me nice.

You know when grown ups say: don’t play with your food? Wrong! Playing is the best way to learn.

There is always a moment in cooking where I think: this looks a mess.

“Be quiet,” I order my inner critic. I know I must persevere regardless, adding a bit of this, a bit of that.

The thing about porridge is it is meant to look like slop.

You can add fruit, nuts and seeds for extra taste and nutrition. I like sultanas, cinnamon, pecan nuts and pomegranate (see pic).

I love raw oats too. They are my top favourite comfort snack food with soya or rice milk, and sometimes, when in a dairy mood, organic cream.

This is how I make porridge. Using a cup – or half a mug – of jumbo oats (organic of course) per person, I soak them in water overnight.

If I forget to soak them (sometimes there are other things on a girl’s mind), I use rolled oats because they cook quickly without soaking.

So you get your oats, put them in a saucepan, add water and gently bring to the boil, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon to stop them sticking to the pan.

How much water? Well, enough to cover the oats, then add about a half a cupful more and keep simmering and stirring. Eventually the oats absorb the water and by trial and error, you can make porridge as lumpy or smooth as you like. Maybe you need to add more water, maybe you need to cook it a bit more (generally takes 10-15 minutes).

I would like to be more precise but it is not in my nature. Cooking is about experimenting.

It all comes good in the end – so take heart.

1 Comment

Posted in eating well on a budget, food, recipe

Tagged oats, organic food, porridge, recipe

Soho hummus

Posted on February 26, 2008 | 6 comments

Down memory lane in London’s Soho. 1978, unmarried, pregnant, I saw a poster in a funky vegetarian cafe’s noticeboard that changed my life.

Fast forward to 2008. I walked past Food for Thought (it’s still there!) and smiled nostalgically. I did not stop as I was on my way to the 24/7 internet cafe, Netstream.

Starving at 2pm on Wardour Street I found my dream eaterie, Hummus Bros. If you love hummus and in London, you have to go.

Hummus Bros serve each dish (see pic) with a free and unexpected egg, a choice of rye bread (from Fresh and Wild) instead of the traditional pita bread, chilli relish, extra lemon juice and if that wasn’t enough love, a complimentary glass of mint tea made with the fresh herb.

One of my top fave foods, hummus is both comforting and nourishing. It packs protein by combining plant foods. Two different plant groups roughly equals one complete protein, and hummus, with pita, offers three: chickpeas (bean), tahini (seed), and the pita bread (grain).

I yearn to tell you how to make hummus at home because it will be a lifelong friend. The cooked (high fibre, low-GI) chickpeas are mixed in a blender to a creamy gunk with olive oil, lemon juice, a bit of garlic and tahini – now that’s a convenience food I approve of. I also prize tinned organic chickpeas as a larder-friend. (So there, Delia.)

Cooking from scratch saves money and takes planning (beans need an overnight soak and one hour of cooking). This recipe explains it really well. I have never used yogurt, as it suggests. Must try.

6 Comments

Posted in food, recipe, restaurant

Tagged hummus, Soho

Love smoothie

Posted on February 23, 2008 | 5 comments

There is nothing more pleasant than a smoothie and its pleasures are fairly instant. If you love drinking smoothies in a café (as I did in La Ruca, see pic) it’s worth investing in a blender or smoothie maker. You need electricity to make a smoothie smooth. (If anyone knows differently, tell me.)

For those planning to live on smoothies (we all have times in our life like that) then vary the ingredients as much as possible.

The delight we derive from variety is nature’s way of making sure we get diverse nutrients.

Smoothies are personal. Everyone has different tastes. This website has loads of smoothie recipes to choose from. Luckily, so I can be lazy and tell you my favourite.

You need to stock up on a few things. I find cow’s milk makes me snuffle so I use soya milk (organic because I don’t want them GM beans) and also (if this is a week’s siege) I would splash out on a carton or two of rice or nut milk. You can make your own.

Banana forms the basis because it is a mood stabiliser (all that potassium, you know), as well as easy-to-eat and sweet. Add a grape or two, or a mango sliver. What fruits do you like?

Start by whisking/blending the banana. A teaspoon of nut butter (peanut, almond or cashew) for added protein? Some raw porridge oats? This is the time to whiz ’em in a mash with a tablespoon of milk or apple juice.

Pour the milk in slowly (a mugful for one). Look, if it gets gloopy, add liquid to gently thin it out.

You can blend in raw grated or ground ginger (great for my digestion) if you like. What I also adore is cinnamon.

Cooking is a bit of an experiment (no dish is the same each time) – that’s what keeps it interesting.

5 Comments

Posted in food, recipe, recipe idea

Tagged milk substitutes, recipe, smoothie

What’s in your cupboard?

Posted on February 8, 2008 | Leave a comment

Today I decided to explore the forgotten corners of the kitchen cupboard.

That’s where I found the dried peas. Cinderellas of the store cupboard, they scrub up well when you take them to the ball. Feeling like a fairy godmother, I whisked them away from their dreary existence.

I rattled them into a pan, then added water and a peeled whole onion pierced with a few dried cloves. (Respect and credit to Rose Elliot’s The Bean Book).

That in itself (with salt and black pepper to taste) will make a fine pea soup in twenty minutes.

But I was an experimental mood so I continued my expedition in the Land of Cupboard.

Peering into unlabelled jars, I unearthed more treasures. Into the soup went a palmful of buckwheat, the same of puy lentils and (I thought this rather masterful) ground almonds.

The result was a lovable, luxurious yet light and comforting soup.

What’s in your cupboard?

Lentils – real fast

Posted on January 21, 2008 | 6 comments

I love eating real food. In fact my body demands it.

“Give me substance,” it commands.

Real food is as close to its natural state as it can get. Not air-fluffed or chemical-dependent.

Organic red lentils are real. They make me sigh with happiness. And cook up pretty fast. About 20 minutes. Less if you soak them beforehand.

If you cook porridge, you can do lentils. Just add water to cover (a full handful of lentils per person), simmer, and stir to stop any cooked lentils sticking to the pan. Too dry? Add tablespoons of water. Too wet? Let it simmer a bit longer. Stir the pot to stop it sticking. Stirring also encourages a satisfying mush.

Things you can add for taste are endless. I used to love lemon juice and mushrooms (mixed into the cooked lentils) now I like slivers of chilli pepper (added at the start). Fresh chopped coriander is good (mixed in last), so is coconut slivered from a block (add to the simmering pot).

What would you add to a dish of warm, soothing lentils?