Radiate health, transform your life and enrich your wisdom about natural food and health.

• The Healthy New Year cookery course will develop your repertoire of essential dishes to secure your healthy eating.  
• The professional Pure Cook’s Training Ecourse trains you over 7 modules to style plant cuisine into fabulous dishes, while integrating your learning for greater nourishment for yourself and others. Begins 29 January.

Should you be hosting, here are some steps to help you plan your meal and support your spread.

Create a welcome feast by considering the balance of your meal.

The traditional turkey and roast potatoes are all heavy, long cooked baked dishes.   If you want your diners to feel great after eating, energised and even still awake, I advise including lighter side dishes as accompaniments.

Raw or lightly cooked vegetable sides give a contrasting quality of freshness and helps bestow balance on the meal.  Make the flavour ooze with a tangy sour tune, so much the better!  The sour flavour really lifts a meal, conferring even more fresh aliveness.  Dress your salad or greens with lemon or lime juice, or the zest from a citrusy fruit.

Suggested dishes to go alongside your traditional feast..

• Fast cooked greens of brussel sprouts, broccoli, kale or cavelo nero.
  Blanch the vegetables in a pan of boiling water with a pinch of sea or rock salt.  The salt prevents the nutrients leaching out of the vegetables and turning the water all murky.  Cook the vegetables like this until they are tender.  For leaves such as kale and cavelo nero they will simply need a moment to submerge in the water and turn a vibrant green colour.  For sprouts and broccoli they will need a few minutes until a fork can pierce them easily.
• A leafy salad
  Rocket and watercress have a pronounced bitter flavour which will be a great flavour contrast to the rest of the meal.  A small amount of raw onion serves to add a little pungent taste.  Incorporate a tangy scent from lemon or lime in your dressing.
• One of my acclaimed pressed salads of coleslaw, cucumber salad or beetroot, fennel & apple.
  The pressed salads foster the good gut bacteria and serve as a digestive aid assisting the assimilation and absorption of a meal.
• Pickles
  Pickles produced in the traditional lacto fermentation style, like pressed salads, also harness the lacto bacilli and help the digestion of the rest of the meal.

Here are three of my favourite dressings permeating with the freshness of lemon juice.

Do let me know if you have any questions at all and I wish you delicious dining over the festive break.

Radiate health, transform your life and enrich your wisdom about natural food and health.

• The Healthy New Year cookery course will develop your repertoire of essential dishes to secure your healthy eating.  
• The professional Pure Cook’s Training Ecourse trains you over 7 modules to style plant cuisine into fabulous dishes, while integrating your learning for greater nourishment for yourself and others. Begins 29 January.

Ingredients

2-3 bundles soba noodles

Bunch cavelo nero leafy greens

2 spring onions finely sliced

2 tblsp rice vinegar

1 tblsp ginger juice

1 tblsp dark miso

2 tblsp water

Shoyu/ tamari to taste

2 tblsps black sesame seeds

Sea salt

Preparation

Bring a pan of water to the boil with a pinch of sea salt. Slice the greens into long, slim strips and blanch in the boiling water. Remove the greens and now add the soba noodles, and cook according to the packets’ instructions. Drain the noodles and rinse under cold water to prevent sticking.

In a bowl combine the rice vinegar, ginger, miso and water. Toss the noodles with the greens and sauce, adding shoyu or tamari to taste if required. Serve garnished with sesame seeds and spring onion.

Radiate health, transform your life and enrich your wisdom about natural food and health.

• Natural Kitchen kicks off with a fabulous new year workshop on Saturday 23rd January.
• The Healthy New Year course begins 26th January and will develop your repertoire of essential dishes to secure your healthy eating.  
• The professional Pure Cook’s Training Ecourse trains you over 7 modules to style plant cuisine into fabulous dishes, while integrating your learning for greater nourishment for yourself and others. Begins 30th January. Enrol today.

I like using black beans or butterbeans, plenty of toasted seeds and nuts and fresh rosemary.   The recipe uses omega rich flax and calls for baking, but you can also fry if you prefer.

Back To School Beany Burgers

• Half onion diced
• 1 clove garlic finely cut
• 2 tblsp flax and ½ cup warm water
• 1 cup oats ground into flour
• 1 carrot grated
• 1 cup cooked beans, then mashed – use black beans, butterbeans or chickpeas
• Handful fresh herbs finely chopped – rosemary is lovely!
• 5 tblsp ground nuts/ seeds I like using toasted almonds and toasted sunflower seeds
• 1 tblsp tamari
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp salt

Saute onions and garlic.  Mix flax with water and leave while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Add salt to taste.

With wet hands form the mixture into patties.  Place on a prepared baking sheet, and bake in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes on each side, until crisp.

I am delighted to welcome guestblogger Naz. Naz recently turned vegan and here she shares one of her creations arising from the Pure Cook’s Training.  Be sure to check out more of her recipes at her blog  http://theveganista.uk/

My decision to go plant-based stemmed from years of extreme fatigue and an undiagnosed stomach condition. I’d heard that a plant-based diet could really adjust my energy levels, and I figured that taking out all of the tampered with meat from supermarkets out of my lifestyle could only be a good thing. It’s still pretty early on in my journey but I already feel I have bounds more energy, my skin glows and I’ve lost that extra layer of fat which made me uncomfortable.

Ingredients:
Half pack silken tofu (or regular tofu combined with a little water)
5 tbls sunflower oil
2 tbls lemon juice
2 spring onions or handful chives
1-2 tblsp ume vinegar
¼ tsp salt

Preparation:
Blend all the ingredients in a small food processor.  Adjust flavours to taste.  Enjoy!

Pressed salads are made up of raw vegetables finely sliced and then pressed down to release their water content. This makes the vegetables more digestible and retains the vitality of the vegetables’ live enzymes.

Below is my favourite pressed salad recipe, a sample video from the Pure Cook’s Training course.   Read on for the low down on why these salads are the best for your digestive and overall health.

Favourite Pressed Salad of Beetroot, Apple & Fennel

Good Gut Bacteria Benefit

The act of pressing encourages a slight fermentation, promoting enzymes which aid digestion and support immunity.  In this lactic acid fermentation the good gut bacteria; the Lactobacillus bacteria proliferate and breakdown lactose and other sugars to lactic acid.  The lactic acid that preserves the vegetables and gives them their yummy tangy flavour.  Incidently, lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria.

Lacto fermented foods were eaten as part of the diets of every traditional society. Today Europeans relish pickles and sauerkraut.  The Orient is known for pickled vegetables and kimchi.  In Africa, porridges are made from soured grains.

More Positives of Pressed Salads and Lacto-Fermentation

Digestive Aid

• Reintroduce good bacteria into the intestines
• Aid absorption of nutrients, since the good gut enzymes are harboured.
• Safeguards digestive health and conditions including IBS, ulcers and colitis
• Breaks down fat, so pressed salads are ideal for detoxing and to enjoy with a heavy meal.
• Good for opening the cells and bringing oxygen to them
• Regulate acidity of blood, making the blood more alkaline
• Pressing helps break down fibrous vegetables, making them easier to digest

Drive Health

• Studies show that fermented foods contribute to lower rates of skin problems, asthma and autoimmune disorders.
• The lactic acid helps lower fat in the blood stream, improves circulation and lower high blood pressure.
• Pressed salads aid bodily cleansing
• Protect us from harmful bacteria

Nutrition

• Vitamin content is higher than in raw vegetables
• Rich in vitamin B and C
• Helps absorb calcium
• Help open cells in body and bring oxygen to them

I am delighted to welcome guestblogger Lilian.  Here, she shares her surprises from taking the Pure Cook’s Training and a lovely recipe creation to enjoy this Spring.  Lilian is based in the Netherlands and runs a special exercise academy internationally; www.doinacademy.com.

I have always been enthusiastic about nutrition and energy balance, and I felt it was time to go one step further.  So I attended Anna’s online Pure Cook’s Training. Indeed, though I had already a solid base in nutrition and Chinese medicine, she definitely taught me a lot. And inspired me in trying plenty of new recipes. This enabled me to implement the macrobiotic principles into the life of my whole family, including my little daughter who loves the natural food kitchen.

In January while the course began, my husband felt inspired too and started eating miso soup every morning. A beautiful surprise unfolded – the eczema he had suffered since childhood disappeared within days!

The macrobiotic way goes hand in hand with my vision on health and wellbeing, which I share as a Do-In teacher and teacher trainer on a daily basis. Do-In is an ancient, yoga-like, art of movement which has its origins in Chinese medicine. If you’d like to try it out, here’s a link to an article I recently wrote, sharing the essential meridian stretches.

Spring Green Parcels with Shitake Mushroom & Kohl Rabi

Serves 6

dressing:

1. Start preparing the dressing:
   Warm the sesame oil, add the garlic and after a minute the ginger.  Cook for one more minute. Turn of the gas, mix the miso with the lemon juice, Tamari, and some water to get a good texture, add the lemon zest and stir. If preferred add some more lemon juice or rice vinegar to taste.
2. Now prepare the filling:
   Warm the sesame oil, add garlic and mushrooms, cook for a minute. Then add the carrots, kohlrabi and a dash of water.  Cook for five minutes. Add the sesame seeds and the tamari. Mix the miso and lemon in a bowl. Add to the pan, together with the shiitakes.
3. And for the greens:
   Steam the green part of the bok choi leaves. To fil them, place one leaf at the time on a plate, add a tbspn of the filling and fold and roll the leave into a nice little package.
   Serve with the dressing.

Radiate health, transform your life and enrich your wisdom about natural food and health. The professional Pure Cook’s Training Ecourse trains you over 7 modules to style plant cuisine into fabulous dishes, while integrating your learning for greater nourishment for yourself and others. Begins 25th April. Enrol today.

By Guestblogger Carlota Ribeiro Sanches,

Carlota shares one of her yummy recipes from her final cooking project on the Pure Cook’s Training.

I wanted to create a menu that could be used daily, using organic seasonal vegetables, easy to prepare, with a lot of different flavours and textures – rich and wholesome dishes that would contain all the nutrients necessary for a balanced meal and diet.

Also, since I have been focusing on ways to substitute refined sugar, I intended to make the dishes slightly sweet to prevent any unhealthy sugar cravings!

The chickpea cakes were one of the best accidents I ever had. I was going to make a chickpea and beetroot hummus, however I didn’t have any beetroot at home so I decided to use sweet potato instead.

The chickpea cakes are lovely and soft and the easiest thing to make.  The recipe also generated the sweet taste that I was craving.  I knew my chickpea cakes would prevent me from looking for unhealthy sugar.  The recipe includes many natural sugars that are slowly released into the bloodstream and help ensure a balanced source of energy – now I wouldn’t feel sluggish or tired after eating, and I have found a great snack to eat in mid-afternoon.

I added dried oregano to add something of my cultural background, this time related to Portuguese cuisine. Dried oregano is very aromatic, and combined with the toasted sesame gives the cakes a more exciting feel, both in texture and flavour.

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato
• 1 cup of cooked chickpeas
• Sesame seeds
• Sea salt
• Dry oregano leaves
• Cumin powder
• Cayenne pepper

Preparation method

• Peel the sweet potato and bake it in the oven until very soft
• In a food processor mix the chickpeas, the baked sweet potato, a pinch of salt, 1 tea spoon of cumin powder and a pinch of cayenne pepper. The mixture should be soft but dry enough to make the cake shape.
• When the mixture is ready shape the dough into cakes, round and flat is a good option, and sprinkle them with toasted sesame seeds.
• When the cakes are ready place them in an oven tray to toast, leave for about 10 minutes. The outside should be toasted and the inside tender and soft.
• When ready add more sesame seeds if needed and some dry oregano for flavour.

I really enjoyed thinking about something that could be seasonal, beneficial, balanced, exciting but easy to prepare; something that I could share with others. I also wanted to add a personal touch to it, using ingredients that we hadn’t used in the cooking classes.

The experience made me want to learn more, research and overall cook even more. There are so many important things, details to creating and preparing a dish that it makes it a very powerful and wonderful challenge.

Radiate health, transform your life and enrich your wisdom about natural food and health.  The professional Pure Cook’s Training  Ecourse trains you over 7  modules to style plant cuisine into fabulous dishes, while integrating your learning for greater nourishment for yourself and others.  Begins 31st January.  Enrol today

My favourite protein and iron rich feast of a dish.  Plenty of dark leafy greens, alfalfa sprouts, sauerkraut and sumptuous tempeh.

Tempeh is the favoured fermented soy bean product, originally from Indonesia and often found in the freezer section of a health food store.  Tempeh is favoured for it’s top nutrition, protein, iron and B12 content.

For the Tempeh Platter:

Tempeh
Shoyu
Bay leaf
Kombu sea vegetable
Several ginger pieces finely sliced

Cut the tempeh into cubed pieces and simmer in water to cover, with a strip of kombu, 3 tblsp shoyu, sliced ginger  and bay leaf for 20 minutes.
Fry the tempeh on each side in sesame oil.

For the Bed of Greens:

1 Leek
Handful mushrooms
2 generous handful kale leaves
Handful alfalfa sprouts
2 tblsp sauerkraut

While the tempeh is cooking, slice the leek, mushrooms and prepare the kale.
Now using the same pan as for the tempeh, fry the leeks, and cook for4 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and kale, and cook until turning tender, about 3 minutes.  Then add sauerkraut, alfalfa sprouts, ginger pieces (from the tempeh marinade) and cook for another minute, before returning the tempeh to the pan and serving.

Note:  I like to keep the tempeh in the oven once it is fried.  This preserves is yummy, crispy texture!