Pumpkin, Chickpea and Spinach Satay

It's funny how sometimes you find a recipe and BAM that night you've already made it, and soon after that you've blogged it. And yet other times you find a recipe you Really, Really want to make. Maybe you even buy a whole cookbook on the basis of one recipe. And years or decades later you still haven't tried that recipe. Or you've cooked other recipes again and again and never blogged them.

Today's recipe is a BAM. I came across this blog post on a lazy Sunday morning recently, and I made it that very evening. I only need three work lunches that week, and this made a big, big pot of satay.

Of course I fiddled with the recipe a bit. I had a large capsicum lurking in the vegie crisper that I wanted to use up, so I added that. I added a carrot for good measure- I'm not particularly good at eating carrots otherwise, but am more than happy to whilst hidden in a satay.

generous drizzle of soy sauce
1 onion, diced
1 large red capsicum, diced (or whatever you have lurking in the vegie crisper)4 medium size garlic cloves, crushed
3 tsp of grated fresh ginger
1.5kg butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped into 2-3cm cubes
1 carrot, peeled and diced375mL can of light and creamy coconut flavored evaporated milk
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/2  cauliflower
1 medium floret broccoli
1 pkt of firm tofu
1/2 cup of crunchy or smooth peanut butter
1  tbs soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
150g  baby spinach leaves
Optional: + 1/4 cup chopped coriander + 1 long red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped

Heat a generous drizzle of soy sauce in a large sauce pan and cook the onion for 4-5 minutes until soft. Add the capsicum, garlic, ginger (and optional chilli) and cook for 1 minute, stirring to combine. Add pumpkin and carrot cubes and stir to combine. Pour in coconut flavored milk and stock, bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until pumpkin is just cooked. Add the cauliflower and broccoli, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Then stir in the tofu and cover; continue to simmer for 3 minutes. Ensure the cauliflower and broccoli are tender (and the tofu is now less firm to touch) before adding the peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar and chickpeas; stir to combine and heat through. Stir in the spinach (and optional coriander) until all combined. 


Notes
My pumpkin all but dissolved. Not a bad thing, it just was. I cut it into bite sized pieces as I much prefer that to larger chunks, but I wasn't quite anticipating the complete disappearance of form. Still yummy.

I was rather apprehensive about frying the onion in soy sauce instead of oil, worrying that all I would taste would be soy. It wasn't. I'm not sure what difference it makes really. I have no problems with a small amount of oil to fry onion in a dish like this- I reckon there are worse things you can eat, but I was interested to try this method. It would be higher in salt as a compensation for lower in fat I suspect.

I used crunchy peanut butter as that was all we had in the cupboard on the day. My son likes crunchy to eat, I will usually only eat smooth as a spread.

I think I might have forgotten the sugar.

I absolutely love coriander so heaps of that went in, and I put a chilli in, but it was very mild one I think and I couldn't detect any heat.

I served it over quinoa (the ingredient of 2010?). It was delicious and would be easily adaptable for including many other vegies too.

This recipe made a vast quantity, and because I made it in the week leading up to Christmas and we were going away I eventually wasted about half of it, as I didn't think it would freeze well because of the milk. I only managed to eat half of it despite having it for lunch and dinner on two days, feeding it to Mr Adventures once and then lunch for me on another day. I would make a half quantity if I were to make it again. But then would have half a can of milk left over, and would have to find a use for that.

Crunchy Granola Suite 2- Spicy Pear Gingergbread Muesli

It's taken me a while to get to posting this. I've made this muesli twice now. The first time was disappointing, which was very sad, perhaps I expected too much of it. I made a few mistakes with the first attempt. I tried cooking it with the oven fan on- not a good idea, it was much too dark, almost burnt- don't do it. I didn't put enough spice in, and I actually found the sugar a bit much. 

So, this time, I've cut back the sugar and ramped up the spices. I love gingerbread, and was keen to try to flavour a muesli this way. I have a wonderful Herbie's spice mix- Quartre Epices Sweet that helped with the genesis of this idea. A heady mix of allspice, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. I love the warm spiciness of those wonderful, flavourful aromas of gingerbread and it's relatives like pain d'epices and speculaas. The other muse for my muesli making exploits was Wayfaring Chocolate, who makes a mean looking muesli when she's not wayfaring, or scarfing down chocolate (although she insists on calling it granola)

• 2  cups  rolled oats (not instant)
• 2/3 cup rolled barley
• 1 cup (120g) pepitas
• 1  (20mL) Logicane Low GI sugar
• 3 tblsp (60mL) golden syrup
• 1 tblsp (20mL) sesame oil
• 1 tblsp (20mL) canola oil
• 1 tsp quatre epices- sweet (allspice, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2/3 cup (140g) dried pears, rehydrated, drained, and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F). Mix oats, barley and pepitas in a bowl.

2. In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together the sugar, molasses, sesame and canola oils, and spices. Tip the oats and pepitas into the wet ingredients and stir well to combine.

3. Spread the mix onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes,  take out and stir  to avoid its edges burning.

4. Add  the chopped pears and stir through, then put muesli back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes, until starting to look toasted. Remember, the muesli will crisp up as it cools.

5. Eat multiple handfuls from the baking tray as the muesli cools.

Notes

Barley is very low GI, in fact one of the lowest GI foods. Sadly rolled barley is moderate GI, but I still have more than half a packet in the cupboard, so it needs to be used up. And the overall GI should still be low.

Last time the moisture from the rehydrated pears kept the muesli soggy instead of delightfully crisp. But the texture of the pears was much improved, so I hydrated them again, and then baked them separately, and stored them separately, and just put some on each morning for breakfast. 

I particularly love cinnamon and can't usually get enough of it. So I added some extra. And a touch of ginger- I can't believe I didn't think to add it the first time. I've had this a few days now for breakfast and I think next time I'll add even more spice- it's not quite there yet for me. 


I've used golden syrup in this twice now, and despite me thinking that it would be Fantastic, you don't get much of a note from it. I think I will try another syrup next time- molasses or treacle perhaps. I've got a rather large jar of treacle lurking in the back of the pantry. It's always fun to find a use for something that has otherwise been rendered useless. 

Indian Spiced Kumara

We here at Adventures are happy to be featuring ingredients riding on the crest of popularity. Last week it was ingredient of the moment quinoa. All gluten free and trendy. Today it's kumara. It's in vogue. It could save African children from dying. Kumara is the Maori word for sweet potato, and is replacing sweet potato as a term in Australia as well as New Zealand. I like the sound of it. Kumara.

I love kumara, and I love dates. So this recipe for Sweet Indian-Spiced Sweet Potato cried out to me for me to make it when I saw it a week or so ago. It's almost low GI, well, medium GI probably, possibly low GI. And it tastes great, so that's good. Of course, I tinkered, through both necessity and desire. And it was good.

Kumara is medium GI (61). Dates are low GI- although I'm not sure how this can really be- (39-45), a veritable health food. I like to think of medjool dates as nature's caramel.

The observant among you will notice slightly more than 6. No point in cooking with dates and not having a cooks treat. 

Indian-Spiced Kumara

2 kumaras, diced
6 medjool dates, pitted and chopped
2 tblsp sultanas
1 tblsp soy sauce
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/3 cup water

Steam kumara in microwave until tender. Set aside in a bowl.

Place the rest of the ingredients in a blender, and blend until creamy.

Pour sauce over the kumara, stir to combine. Season if desired.

Notes
The original recipe had sugar but I used wondrous sweet medjool dates, and it really was quite sweet enough, I think it would have been cloying with added sugar, it was more than fine without.
It's probably a bit silly to use both garam masala and curry powder. I can't imagine that this is a tradition use of indian spices by any stretch. But I didn't have any chili powder in the house. And it worked out ok.

This was a really versatile dish. I served it with couscous (medium GI 65) and green veg (asparagus and zucchini this week), and it made a great work lunch. My lunch is almost vegan, well apart from the butter I use to cook my couscous, but you could avoid that, I don't want to.

I used some for my pizza this week.

Indian spiced kumara, red onion and capsicum pizza

I turned leftovers into wraps on the weekend, the sweet note was really nice then too.

Japanese Quinoa Salad

Oops I did it again. I was half way through making this before I realised that it was Accidentally Vegan (well it would be if you use vegetable stock, which I did and leave out the honey I guess). It could be gluten free, if you used the tamari (I think that's GF, although I'm not a GF expert).

It's great where inspiration can strike. Thumbing through this weeks Good Living (the Tuesday Food and Wine supplement in the Sydney Morning Herald) my eyes lit up at the kids recipe- a spinoff from the Junior Masterchef phenomenon no doubt. Japanese Quinoa Salad.

I had some fabulous quinoa in the pantry and thought it would look fantastic in this salad.

Actually I think it looks prettier uncooked and in the packet, but it's still a nice effect.

Japanese Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 large carrot, peeled, julienned, blanched
1/2 red capsicum (bell pepper), julienned
Large handful snow peas, topped, blanched
1 small cucumber, washed, julienned
1 bunch coriander, roughly chopped
1/2 cup cashews, toasted, roughly chopped
1 toasted nori sheet, ripped into bite sized pieces
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Baby spinach leaves, washed

Dressing
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp honey, optional

Wash the quinoa by rinsing it in cold water and strain well. Put washed quinoa and stock into a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower heat, cook over low to medium heat for 25 minutes, or until soft, and water absorbed. Set aside.

Combine cooled quinoa, carrots, capsicum, snow peas, cucumber and spinach. Add the coriander, cashews, sesame seeds (reserving some to serve).

To make the dressing, mix all ingredients and stir lightly.

Dress the salad and toss lightly, sprinkle with nori and extra sesame seeds.

OMG I can't believe how delicious this salad is. My new favourite lunch, and I haven't even had a chance to blog my old favourite lunch yet. Interestingly, both involve quinoa. Although not all quinoa experiments are as successful as I found out today when I toyed with a sweet quinoa dish.

Notes
Suggested as suitable for 8-12 year olds to make, but is easy enough for adults to make too.

I can't stand raw carrot, and think it's actually inedible, and since I've already eaten some once this year, I decided to modify this recipe by cooking the carrots, and greening it up, with some snow peas and spinach. I was planning to add asparagus (just because I love it, and the season will end soon) but the stuff available yesterday was about as thick as my forearm, and didn't look appealing.

I  upped the amount of cashews because it seemed a bit stingy, and you can never have too many cashews now can you? And I doubled the amount of coriander, just because I love it so.

I just realised I forgot the ginger from the dressing! Oops. Still delicious. I used the honey, I may try it without, I was planning to, but it really is delicious as is, did I mention that? So now I don't really want to mess with perfection.

 Because this makes a reasonable amount of salad, and since I'm using it for work lunches it will last me the majority of the week, so I only made up the quinoa, carrot and capsicum. Then each day I add fresh greens to it in my lunch box. And I carry little containers with the seeds/nuts/nori/dressing to keep them fresh and crunchy, to keep the texture nice. No point in having soggy salad just because you're at work, there has to be one highlight to the day.

I'm planning on topping it with the asian flavoured tofu that I have lurking in the fridge (no-one else in the house is in danger of touching it!), but didn't get around to that today. I'm sure it would work with a tin of soy beans mixed through as well.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Little did I know when I started eating low GI a few months ago that I would end up with Gluten Free, Sugarless Chocolate in my paws. It wasn't an expected turning for me. This is not the sort of food product that I would have even noticed a few short months ago. And possibly I know why.

I'm always rather concerned when my food contains warnings. Particularly if they need to warn that Excess Consumption may have a Laxative Effect. Great. How much is Excess? Will one block cause me to run to the loo? One line? Half a block? Eight kilos of it? How much? This warning is because the first ingredient I now notice (more than cocoa butter which comes second in the Lemon White Chocolate) is maltitol. Maltitol is an artificial sweetener, which is poorly absorbed (thus the diarrhoea warnings), and so even though it has a moderate GI (69 in my book, but I see different and lower values on the web), it has little effect on blood sugar levels. Ah, wiki tells me that the United States classes maltitol in the Generally Recognised as Safe club, and that the potential laxative effect may occur if more than 100 gm/day is consumed. Whew, I've never got near that.

The thing that most concerns me about maltitol without googling it for hours is that it is made from corn. I haven't read all of Michael Pollan's work, but I have read part of the corn section in The Omnivore's Dilemma. He talks about the dangers of monocultures in agriculture, and how this forces us into heavier reliance on fossil fuels and chemicals to negate natural pests. He also tells us that the carbon in corn is naturally different so that scientists can test meals to see how much of the carbon came from corn (I can't remember the intricacies of how), and if you pulverise a hamburger from a fast food "restaurant" then I think it was something like 70% of the carbon came from corn! Although this article on the Scientific American site, gives a figure of up to 93%! All rather frightening. 

This first low GI chocolate experience one wasn't too bad, I think. I don't remember it being awful at any stretch (I bought this a month or two ago, near the start of the blog, and I didn't realise that I would use it here). I don't remember it very well actually, I may have to try it again to be sure. 

Why, why can't I turn this around?

I had high hopes for this next one. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I do have an underlying optimistic streak after all? The girl in the chemist (yes, that is where this sort of treat lurks, in the chemist, that should have been warning) gushed about how nice this particular chocolate was when I bought it, she said the staff had all tried it and thought it was really nice. 

Sadly, it wasn't Really Nice. In fact it wasn't even nice. It was Awful. The artificial lemon smell was really quite overpowering and smelt like they may actually manufacture this in the Shower Power factory. That fake lemon smell is ok, if you want to clean the bathroom, but if you want to eat a yummy chocolate, well, it's not what you're looking for. Why is it only when I get it home and open the packet, I see the Artificial Vanilla and Lemon Flavours padding out the ingredient list?

The chocolate itself I found soapy with a grainy texture. It was Awful.

I've just noticed a warning on the back of the pack, that it isn't recommended for kids under 3 years of age. You know, if they can't eat it, then I don't want to either. Although that doesn't apply to everything of course. They can't eat whole nuts because they might choke on them, but at least they aren't considered toxic. 

Oh great and I just noticed it was expired (08 2010). Urgh. I can't imagine that explains my experience, but it's still annoying. And should have been another clue.

I surely must be an optimist, as on a recent trip to Bathurst, I was caught short without adequate supplies of antihistamines and panadol, so as I fronted up to the counter at the chemist (oh dear God I'm in there again) I noticed this little packet. Now I'm not a great fan of Darrel Lea chocolate as a rule. They do make a Chocolate Caramel Snow Bar that I liked as a youngster, but I generally don't buy any of their stuff from year to year. So, I'm not quite sure why I bought it, but I did. 

To be fair, it had quite a reasonable snap when I broke a piece off. It looked ok. But it wasn't good in the mouth. It almost tasted like compound chocolate with a nasty edge to it, so much so that it was a bit of a struggle to finish even this modest 50gm bar. But finish it I did, although it did take a couple of days. 

Never a dull moment with lentils

The Young Ones may never have had a dull moment with lentils, but I imagine that the rest of us have. Lentils have a bad reputation, not altogether fully deserved I believe. I have made and loved a brown rice and lentil soup for 15-20 years. I'm well aware that it does sound Rather Awful. But everyone who has tried it always wants the recipe.

Lentils are low gi wonders. They are nutritional powerhouses- full of protein, fibre and nutrients. And they are tasty too. There are different varieties to play with as well. I used some Australian grown Puy style lentils that I had lying about the house.

Browsing through the Essential Ingredient recently I noticed they have some black lentils, which I think they called Lentil Caviar. That is possibly going a bit far, but I know what kind of lentils I'll be trying next.

So my eyes lit up when flipping through the latest issue of Cuisine (a marvellous food mag from New Zealand) and I saw Ray McVinnie's current Quick Smart article. More a series of food suggestions than actual recipes, this month he features lots of delicious suggestions for grains, pasta and pulses- all right up my low GI alley.

Lots of fabulous suggestions- Spicy Quinoa and Pork, Barley and Asparagus Bake, Orzo with Roast Pumpkin and Kumara. The one that really caught my eye first was Lentil Egg Salad. It looked the perfect weekday work lunch suggestion. Easy to prepare ahead, yummy, and an excuse to have some bacon and eggs, and call it healthy.

Lentil Egg Salad

Boil some green or brown lentils in plenty of water with half an onion, a carrot and a stick of celery until the lentils are tender. Drain, discard the vegetables, toss the lentils in a little extra virgin olive oil, season and serve in a salad with cos leaves, soft-poached eggs, watercress sprigs, crisp bacon, capers, walnuts and a dressing made by pouring a big splash of red wine vinegar into the fat in the hot bacon pan after the bacon has been added to the salad.

I cooked up a batch of lentils and then made it into quite a different lunch each day for the week.  I think it's quite a hangover from my (lengthy) student days that I can quite happily eat the same thing for 3 or 4 days in a row. By day 5 though even my tolerance is wearing a bit thin. This lunch was good for padding out a week, it was reasonably different each day depending on what left overs I had to play around with. One day I used the leftover mango and blueberry salsa.

Another day I had some chopped mushrooms, corn and capsicum. It was quite the production in the staff dining room, cutting my egg and avocado and shelling pistachios.

I forgot to take photos of the first few days, which I thought were the best with leftover asparagus and mashed kumara. You could use basically anything and get a different, tasty, low GI lunch every day.

Roasted Broadbeans

These have to be one of the biggest surprises of my "low GI journey" thus far. I would never have predicted that I would like broad beans, or indeed that I would try- and like roasted broadbeans. I remember being vaguely apprehensive about even buying them, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. They appear to be more aimed at modern middle class mums looking to put something other than chips or muesli bars into their youngsters lunch box for school- billed as "lunch box Fava-rites". Oh dear. We get it. 

But 40 somethings on a low GI path can enjoy them too. They are actually a tasty snack as claimed. I've never been much of a one for a packet of crisps. Indeed, I'd buy something like that maybe once every five to ten years, but these are good for those moments when you need some crunch and salt. They even make an easy snack to slip into your bag to take to the movies, and to share with your unsuspecting, but immediately suspicious friend- who turned out to like them too. 

And they do seem moderately healthy. They are low GI. A good source of protein. The fat is probably a bit high, but given they're packaged in handy portion controlled 25 gram packets- that only gives you a modest 6.1 grams of fat. And I like that the ingredients are all those with names, not numbers.

 Even better, we're doing a good thing for the environment by eating them, as broad beans are one of the "green manure" crops used to fix nitrogen and replenish the soil after other crops have been grown.

And we get a tasty snack out of the deal too:

Even the dog likes them:

Please Sir may I have some more?