What To Do With Beansprouts

Today I ate beansprouts and I didn’t get E-coli and I didn’t die.

Not surprising, you’d think, but recently some beansprouts in Germany have been responsible for spreading the bacteria and caused several deaths and a lot of sickness. Basically, as far as I understand, it was due to poor farming methods, bad hygiene, etc. That sort of thing shouldn’t happen if you grow your own, or buy from a reputable source. I’d run out at home, so I bought some fromAconbury Sprouts because I know they’re good. I’ve bought them before.

I had quite a few for lunch, with a box of olives and that sustained me through a stressful kiln firing (which went on forever!)

Mr H had to go into work this evening, so I made this for his return:

Tricolore Bolognese

1 large courgette

1 large carrot

1 large beetroot

300g multicoloured baby tomatoes

1 generous handful beansprouts

½ red Romano pepper

about 9 olives

1 cm red chilli

1 tsp raw cacao powder

drop olive oil

slice lemon – flesh & juice.

Grate the courgette, carrot and beetroot over a bowl

Squeeze the juice out of the grated veg and place half on the plates. Spread it around the edge with a hole in the middle.

Chop everything else into small pieces (chop the chilli very fine,) and mix together.

Place a large dolop of “Bolognese” in the middle of your plates and add a bit of green salad.

Serves 2 greedy pigs or 3-4 sensible eaters.

Plus a glass of delicious vegetable juice to fight over!

Originally published on http://www.pollyskitchen.blogspot.com

Spicing It Up

I made two Smoothies today, one fruity, one veggy. Here they are:

Sweet Fruity

Ingredients

1 melon (peeled and seeds removed)

1 large handful strawberries

Method

Juice and drink – easy!

I call this one “Pink Champagne”

Savoury Vegetable

Ingredients

8 carrots

1 beetroot (small, peeled)

4 sticks celery

2 tomatoes

Method

Juice all the above and transfer to blender.

Add 2 handfuls spinach

Blend until smooth.

Mr H enjoying his “Fake Guinness“

I was craving cooked food today. None of the snacks were satisfying me, so I knew I needed to prepare a “proper” meal. What I really fancied was curry… ooohhh….

Ok, so I haven’t worked out how to make a raw curry yet (brain cogs turning..) but I did find a lovely Chilli recipe in Naked Chocolate. I’ve had this book for years and to my shame I’ve never made anything out of it.

Here’s the recipe, slightly adjusted for the ingredients I had available (I’ve halved the quantities for 2 people!)

Chilli con Cacao

1 clove garlic

1 large sprig rosemary

1 ripe tomato

1 large sprig basil

3 sun-dried tomatoes

Squeeze of lemon

Half teaspoon cayenne pepper (I’ll use fresh next time.)

2 Olives

1 tablespoon raw cacao powder

Half a red Romano pepper

3 mushrooms

Half a cup of hemp seed oil (or olive oil)

2 Courgettes.

Chop the garlic and herbs.

Dice the tomatoes, pepper and mushrooms.

Chop the olives into quarters.

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and chop roughly (I used a hand-held blender and it worked fine.) Mix in the oil.

Leave to stand while you peel the courgettes (I used a potato peeler to get some nice thin strips of skin) and grate the flesh.

Place the sliced peel on the plates, pile some grated courgette on top and add a generous dolop of Chilli con Cacao onto the top.

It was so delicious. Mr H said he found it “energising” – result! =)

Originally published on http://www.pollyskitchen.blogspot.com