Whole baked cauliflower, roasted red pepper sauce, chimichurri, hazelnut dukkah

Our food isn’t merely a bunch of macronutrients, vitamins and minerals, it is way more complex than this.
Bioactive compounds present in plants form a small proportion of the food we eat.
These are not vitamins or minerals but they are very good for us. If you see a health claim on a particular food, it is almost always likely to be because of the bioactive compound.
Curcumin in turmeric is an example.
Bioactive compounds are especially high in herbs and spices and in different coloured vegetables.
This recipe capitalises on some of the best bioactive compound-containing ingredients to create an incredibly tasty (& fancy looking) dish.

In case you are not a fan, cauliflower is easily replaced with a baked sweet potato or a chunk of any roasted veg.

Ingredients for 2:
1 small cauliflower (1 large cauliflower will serve 4)
rapeseed oil
sea salt & black pepper
150g dry weight quinoa (or 1 ready-cooked quinoa pouch)

For the roasted red pepper sauce
1/4 of a tin of chopped tomatoes
2 peppers
1/2 jar of sun-dried tomatoes (75g drained weight)

For the chimichurri
1 bunch of parsley
1/2 bunch of oregano
1-2 shallots (dependant on size)
1 clove of garlic
1 red chilli, optional
1 lemon
Italian olive oil 

For the hazelnut dukkah
1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
50g hazelnut (ideally blanched hazelnuts)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Put the cauliflower in an ovenproof dish with a lid and drizzle with oil or wrap it in tin foil.
Bake for 1 hour, until the cauliflower is soft and fully cooked through.
Cook the quinoa according to packet instructions and season well with sea salt and black pepper.

To make the dukkah, put all of the ingredients on a small ovenproof roasting tray and roast for 10 minutes. The spices should become fragrant and the hazelnut golden in colour.
Allow it to cool completely then pulse in a blender to roughly break the ingredients up.

To make chimichurri, finely chop all of the ingredients aside from the lemon and transfer them to a bowl.
Add the juice of 1/2 lemon, a pinch of sea salt and stir in enough olive oil to give it the consistency of pesto.
Taste and add more lemon if needed.

To make the roasted red pepper sauce, cut the sides of the pepper off and lay them on a roasting tray, skin side up. You should have 4 flat pieces per pepper.
Put the pepper slices under a hot grill and grill them until the skin blackens and blisters.
Take them out and allow them to cool.
Once they are cool enough to handle, peel off the blackened skin and transfer the pepper pieces to a blender.
Add 1/2 jar of drained sundried tomatoes and a 1/4 of a tin (100ml) of chopped tomato.
Blend until completely smooth.

To serve, put 2 tablespoons of the roasted red pepper sauce on a plate and swirl to form a circle.
Add 3-4 tablespoons of quinoa, a 1/4 or 1/2 of the roasted cauliflower.
Top with a couple of tablespoons of chimichurri and a tablespoon of the hazelnut dukkah.

Sweet potato, chickpea & spinach curry

Curries, especially curry pastes are a great opportunity to top up on nutrients.
Rather than go for a shop-bought version, try blending a few ingredients together to form that flavour paste.
It is the easiest thing to do and you’ll get way more nutrients out of it.
Plus blending everything together is a good opportunity to hide vegetables if you aren’t keen on them.

This mild and fragrant curry combines turmeric, ginger, garlic and green pepper in the paste with sweet coconut milk, sweet potato and chickpeas.
It works well with chicken instead of chickpeas too. In fact, beyond the curry paste and coconut milk, you can virtually include any ingredient.

Ingredients to feed 2

1 large sweet potato, peeled & cubed
1 tin of chickpeas
1 tin of full fat coconut milk
100g of spinach
1 green pepper, roughly chopped
Thumb size piece of ginger, peeled & roughly chopped
2x turmeric root, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 chilli (optional)
Fresh coriander & black rice to serve
Sea salt & black pepper to season
Oil for cooking

Method:
Pop a frying pan on a medium heat. Add a splash of oil & the cubed sweet potato.
Whilst the sweet potato is cooking, make the curry paste by blending the pepper, onion, ginger, turmeric, garlic & chilli with a splash of water until smooth.
Pour the curry paste over the sweet potato and cook for a couple of minutes until thickened.
Season well then add the coconut milk.
Let it bubble on a medium heat until the sweet potato is cooked.
Stir in the chickpeas and spinach.
Season again and cook just enough for the spinach to wilt.
Serve with black rice & fresh coriander.

Shredded mango & halloumi salad

This ladies and gents is a 10/10 salad.
It’s sweet, sour, spicy and crunchy with a slight saltiness from the halloumi.
It’s the kind of dish that’ll transport you to warmer climates, through your tastebuds obviously because teleportation still hasn’t bee convincingly invented. If it was, I’d fully endorse teleporting to Thailand whilst enjoying the flavours of this delicious recipe.
Trust me, this salad is very good, you’ll keep going back for more.

Ingredients for 4:

1 unripe (hard) mango
1 sweetheart cabbage
1/2 red onion
a bunch of coriander
2 tomatoes
1 red chilli
2 blocks of halloumi, cubed
120g of cashews
sea salt and black pepper to season
rapeseed oil for cooking

For the dressing:
1 tablespoon of Kikkoman tamari
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of fish sauce (optional)
2 teaspoons of maple syrup

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Pop the cashews on an ovenproof dish and roast until lightly golden, around 10 minutes.
Put a frying pan on a high heat with a splash of rapeseed oil. Add the halloumi cubes and cook until coloured all around. Set aside to cool slightly.
Finely shred the cabbage and onion. Finely slice the tomatoes and chilli.
Peel the mango then slice it into matchsticks.
Pick the leaves off the coriander.
Put all of the sliced/ shredded ingredients and the coriander leaves into a large bowl and season well with sea salt and black pepper. Stir to mix it.
To make the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.
Pour the dressing over the salad, stir it and divide it between plates.
Top with cashews and halloumi to serve.

Chinese-style beef noodles, sesame cucumber, 7-minute egg & sprinkles

Oriental cooking isn’t my forte.
But I was researching tasty things to make with beef mince and came across a tasty looking beef noodle recipe. It used a lot of pre-made sauces like hoisin and oyster sauce but in the name of research, I decided to give it a go and see what happens.
The recipe wasn’t terrible but it left me feeling really lethargic, super thirsty and just a bit meh.
I knew I could do better and above all, I knew I could create a bowl of food that will leave you nourished and full of energy.
I took out the sugary sauces, added tonnes of flavour with 5 spice, ginger and garlic and topped the bowl with pretty greens and an egg for extra goodness.

This delicious bowl of food will give you 5 of your 10-a-day (hiya vitamins & minerals), lots of protein and lots of feel-good vibes (because it’s so comforting). 

Plus it’s super tasty, so make it.

Fyi - it’s pretty easy to make this with veggie mince too

Ingredients & method to feed 4:
320g of organic beef mince
1 pack of medium egg noodles cooked to packet instructions

1 red onion, sliced
1 teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice 

2 carrots, chopped into matchsticks 

1/2 head of broccoli, chopped into matchsticks

A large handful of beansprouts
4x Clarence Court eggs, boiled for 7 minutes then peeled

Pop a large frying pan (or wok) on a medium-high heat.
Fry the mince and onion until browned.
Season well with salt & pepper.
Add the carrots, broccoli and 5 spice, cook for a further minute. Season everything again with salt & pepper.

In the meantime, make the flavour paste. 


For the flavour paste:

1 thumb-sizes piece of ginger, peeled

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled

1/2 stock cube (veg, chicken or beef)

2 tbsp of soy sauce or tamari (I used Kikkomanuk tamari)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
100ml of water

Blitz everything in a blender until smooth.
Pour over the beef & veg.
Swirl a splash of water in the blender to remove any “stuck” flavour paste and pour this over the beef too.
Add the noodles & beansprouts and cook for a further minute. 


For the cucumber

1 cucumber, made into ribbons with a peeler

Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon agave or maple syrup
2 tbsp sesame oil
Pinch of sea salt & black pepper
1 tsp sesame seeds
Combine everything and set it aside to marinade whilst you make the rest of the dish.

To sprinkle on top:
3 spring onions, sliced 

1 bunch of fresh coriander

Divide the beef noodles between bowls.
Top with an egg, a handful of fresh coriander, some spring onion slices and a large tablespoon of cucumber.