My friends!
A special wave to my swag of new subscribers. Welcome! This is the space where you'll tango with more fibre-rich wholegrains, without having to sacrifice your taste buds or your personality. It's not just about the nutritional load of course - our senses need feeding too. I have no time for penance in my kitchen. My plate holds a strong allegiance to gratitude and celebration.
This month we're submitting to the earth's natural rhythm and waving-in Autumn like a giddy usher at the Oscars. I'm giving you some firm family favourites, to ignite that inner cooking bug.
My last post has some crazydelicious soups you might like to inaugurate to your kitchen cauldrons. They are super simple and nourishing; pumpkin and apple, or roasted carrot and lentil.
During these biting autumnal weekends, baking can be a life-enriching experience. It almost feels like a form of spellbinding magic, straight from a chapter in Hogwarts school of Wizardry and Witchcraft. So this week, we’re focussing on baking. Here is a soft and creamy amaranth dish laced with pumpkin spice. Yup. We're adding amaranth to our arsenal of wholefood ingredients. It's fabulously cheap and nutritious.
Amaranth has a naturally gluey texture once cooked (see video) and adds a sumptuous velvety vibe to this pud. Expect a battalion of calcium and magnesium to waltz through your system, servicing your muscles, your bones, and menopausal demands.
This teensy wholegrain is also surprisingly high in lysine, an amino acid that likes to confuse the Herpes virus by pretending it’s a dear friend (putting the mean into amino). Good news for lips! B-bye coldsores!
So here we go ... welcome to my swished-up version of a classic British dessert - bread n’butter pud.
Bread and butter pudding is overdue a revival, with nutritional jazzhands and a wholefoodie whistle. Here, we swap out conventional boring cream with almond butter or tahini, and switch white sugar to mashed banana and maple. This recipe is a terrific way to upcycle staling bread, especially that sourdough you queued for and want to use every loving crumb.
