Seriously scintillating sesame slaw

The summer sunshine is lingering - salad is definitely still on the menu. But so many salad dressings are packed full of no no ingredients, keeping to a dairy and yeast free diet can make them a little boring at times. I love lemon and olive oil on my leaves, but repetition makes it a bit dull.
Browsing through my fabulous Leon cookbook, I stumbled across a double page spread of coleslaw recipes. I love coleslaw - my favourite sandwich used to be cheese piled high with creamy coleslaw - but so often the dressing is laden with some form of dairy it's a rare treat to find one I can eat. Even the Leon one has had to be modified to leave out any vinegar or fermented products, but the overall taste is still marvellous.
Having soya milk or cream as a dressing base hadn't occurred to me before - goodness knows why! The sesame is a strong base flavour but isn't overwhelming and stands alone as a great salad dressing for strong green leaves and cucumber, as well as this slightly different coleslaw. And of course, being high in calcium and other minerals, it's pretty good for you too!
The slaw contains edamame beans. If you're not into Japanese food, these may be a mystery to you - it's just green soya beans, rebranded! Soya gets a bad name some times, especially in the States where GM is an issue. But these beans really are worth a try as they are not only delicious but packed full of goodness. One of the few vegetable products that is a complete protein (contains the full complement of essential amino acids), they are high in fibre, low in fat (and being a veg contain no cholesterol) and have impressive amounts of vitamin C, folate and thiamin, as well as magnesium, iron and a superb dollop of manganese. Often served in the pod as an appetiser at Japanese restaurants, they are juicy, sweet and a much more interesting and less bitter alternative to broad beans. I've only found them fresh in the pod in a specialist store in London, but luckily my local supermarket stocks bags of frozen beans - not as much fun but still pretty tasty.
I'm definitely going to be trying out some other non-dairy creamy dressings - in the mean time, try this Asian-ish coleslaw and give your taste buds a sesame treat.
Creamy sesame dressing
3 1/2 tbspn soya milk or 2 tbspn soya cream mixed with 1 1/2 tbspn of water
1 tsp Dijon mustard (or mustard powder)
2 tbspn lemon juice
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 1/2 tbspn sesame oil
100mls light olive oil
salt and pepper
Apart from the oil, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil and continue whisking until the dressing has emulsified. Add an extra tablespoon of water if it's too thick and extra seasoning to taste.
Sesame slaw

1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds
200g peas (fresh or frozen and defrosted)
110g edamame beans (defrosted if you can't find fresh)
1/4 white cabbage shredded
2 medium carrots grated
1 portion of creamy sesame dressing
handful chopped parsley
Toasted the seeds and leave to cool. Prepare the vegetables and combine everything except the parsley in a bowl. Pour over the gorgeous dressing and leave for a while for the flavours to fuse. Sprinkle the parsley over the top when you're ready to eat and enjoy!

Pumpkin-licious dip

Over the last few years, pumpkin has become a regular component of our family meals. There is so much you can do with it - steam, boil, bake, roast. Each method brings out a different pumpkin characteristic - steaming keeps the water content as well as the nutrients, making it ideal to mash or puree, whereas roasting concentrates the flavours and the nutrients by removing some of the water content and caramelises some of the natural sugars.

Being pretty sweet, it's great for both savoury and sweet dishes; it works brilliantly with spices too, creating a sweet and spicy base for various Asian dishes. 

Generally, pumpkin and squash can be interchanged in recipes, although some varieties do have slightly different flavours and levels of sweetness. Depending on the time of year, supply in the shops may be limited to one type - often butternut squash over here in the UK - unless you can find a local farm that grows a wide variety and manages to store them well throughout the year. 

Pumpkins and squash are part of the same family of gourds, and of course are really 'gourd' for you!! Despite their sweet flavour, they are pretty low in carbohydrates, contain no fat or cholesterol and are packed full of fibre, vitamin A (it's back again!!), B vitamins, vitamin C and a little vitamin E. It also contains a pretty good whack of potassium and iron to complete the package. So, alongside sweet potatoes and tomatoes, pumpkin is great for maintaining eye and skin health, as well as fighting off signs of ageing and attacks by carcinogenic substances. Recent research also suggests two phytochemicals contained in pumpkin helps improve diabetes.

There are so many amazing pumpkin recipes - my favourites include my warming dairy free squash soup http://foodiesensitive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/warming-dairy-free-squash-soup.html, pumpkin scones and pumpkin and spinach curry. Seems like I have a lot of pumpkin posts to come! As yet, I haven't managed to create a good dairy free pumpkin pie recipe, although I'm sure it's possible.

One dish I have created is a Moroccan inspired pumpkin dip. Eating dairy free can create some lunchtime challenges; as much as I love it, there are only so many times in a week I can have a hummus and salad wrap for lunch. This dip is a fabulous alternative.
The sweetness of pumpkin works brilliantly with coriander, cumin and cinnamon. Using sesame seeds as the base continues with the Moroccan theme, as well as adding in a good dose of manganese, magnesium, calcium and amino acids. If sesame seeds are not your thing, try using cashew nuts instead - it needs something to give the dip some structure, as pumpkin by itself creates a slightly watery dish. 

Play around with the flavours, the spice amounts are just a guideline. Every time I make this, it's slightly different. What doesn't change is the overall yumminess of the dish - it is gorgeous! Serve in wraps, as a dip, with salad or just eat indulgently straight out the bowl with a spoon!!

Moroccan style pumpkin dip

1 medium sized pumpkin or squash

dash of olive oil

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

salt

1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, coriander and cumin

handful fresh coriander chopped

Heat the oven to 180oC. Chop the pumpkin or squash into slices, deseed but leave the skin on and place in a baking tray. Using your hands or a pastry brush, lightly cover the flesh with olive oil - you really don't need much. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or so, until the flesh is soft to touch but not over roasted - you may need to turn the heat down a little if you have a fan oven. Once done, remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Place the sesame seeds (or nuts if using) into a blender and blitz until fine. You can roast them before hand if you like; this creates a richer, deeper flavour to the dip. Remove the skin from the roasted pumpkin and place the flesh into the blender with the ground sesame seeds. Blend again for a few seconds until loosely combined. Add the salt, spices and fresh coriander and blitz again until everything is well combined and smooth. Check the flavouring and add more spices if you need to. That's it - it's ready. Tip out into a dish and enjoy (this goes really well with the chickpea and sesame seed dippers - 

http://foodiesensitive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/no-dairy-no-calcium.html)

The mighty aubergine

During my time in India, I started a love affair - with the fabulously tasty aubergine! There was so much more to this vegetable than I had ever imagined, with an ancient history, multiple varieties and different guises, it was easy to be enticed into a whole new realm of culinary possibilities.

I was surprised to discover  that, botanically, aubergine is actually a fruit; a berry to be precise. Before my departure to sunny climes, I thought aubergines were only large, oval, deep purple and went bitter and mushy when cooked. I discovered that there are around 2000 different varieties of aubergine in India alone, ranging from tiny to giant (1kg in weight), oval, round, long, thin, bulbous, prickly and in many hues – deep purple, red-purple, green, yellow, white, striped and even orange.

Native to India, aubergines are known by the generic name of brinjal, although this varies from area to area depending on the local language. In Hindi, it's 'baingan' which literally translated means "no exceptional qualities" which is rather sad!! In the US and Australia, aubergines are eggplants; some early 18th century versions were white and egg shaped, hence the name. Western Europe tends to use aubergine, apparently coming from Arabic (useful information for your next pub quiz!)

Aubergine is a key ingredient in many Indian dishes.  Highly nutritious, it’s known as both “poor man’s meat” and the “king of vegetables” possibly from a Tamil folk tale (it has a crown!).  So adaptable, it can be cooked in many ways – baked, roasted, bbq’ed, fried, pickled, used for dips and chutneys and even soufflé.  And of course, aubergine pops up in all sorts of cuisine from around the world - Middle Eastern, Arabic, Mediterranean and Asian. 
Aubergine have a high water content, and are excellent source of potassium and other key nutrients such as calcium, folic acid, vitamin C and other anti-oxidants.  Unfortunately, they absorb oil and so become high calorie if fried, but also highly delicious, delectably melting in the mouth.

Its a great vegetable for use in a plant based wholefood diet, as when cooked it produces a delicious creamy texture that can provide additional richness to a dairy free dish. One of my favourite is Baba ghanoush, aubergine dip, a rich and flavoursome dish - I made this the other day for some friends and it disappeared off the table in a flash!  Traditionally, olive oil is added, but I find that baking the aubergine in the oven first until cooked creates enough soft, rich flesh that oil just isn't needed. Beware with the amount of garlic you use though - the flesh absorbs other flavours so well that it can be pretty strong without meaning to - maybe not one to prepare for a romantic date!!

I have a number of delicious, aubergine dishes to share, including a great brinjal curry my maid taught me and an Italian inspired stuffed aubergine roll, but for now, here's healthy, low fat baba ghanoush. Enjoy with toasted flatbread, or my chickpea dippers http://foodiesensitive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/no-dairy-no-calcium.html
Tantilisingly creamy baba ghanoush
1 large aubergine
1 tablespoon tahini
1 -2 cloves garlic, crushed
juice 1/2 lemon
salt to taste
To get a smoky flavour, first place your aubergine directly onto a gas flame (if you have a gas hob) and scorch the skin. Once slightly toasted, wrap in tin foil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes or so at 200 degrees C until soft to touch. Remove from the oven and leave to cool - don't open the tin foil yet. Once cool, carefully unwrap the aubergine, pouring the juices that will have collected in the foil into a blender. Cut open and scoop out the cooked flesh, leaving behind the tougher skin, and place in blender with the juice. Add the remaining ingredients and blitz until combined and really smooth. Check for seasoning, adding more salt and a little black pepper if required, and more lemon juice if it's not quite tangy enough. Share with others if you dare, or indulge by yourself!!

No dairy, no calcium?

We are taught from an early age that milk is an essential part of our diet. If we drink lots of it, we grow up big and strong. Without it, we will have weak bones and teeth. Milk and dairy products are the best source of dietary calcium, as well as other essential nutrients – this is the message put out by dairy producers and successive governments.

So being dairy intolerant, how do I get enough calcium? This was a big concern form me when I first cut dairy from my diet. What I’ve come to realise is that eating a wholefood plant based diet, it’s easy to consume fantastic amounts of easily absorbed calcium to keep my bones and teeth healthy and strong, maybe even better than dairy.

Although the marketing says otherwise, cow’s milk is not the best dietary source of calcium. For example, it has about a 10^th of the calcium levels as sesame seeds and only 30% of the calcium in milk is absorbed by the human gut, whereas with seeds and nuts it’s much higher.

So where do I get my dietary calcium from? Green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds are the best source. 100g of watercress contains 151mg of calcium, compared to 120mg in the equivalent of milk. Oats, beans, chickpeas (there they are again!) and tofu also all have good amounts, so it’s really not too hard to reach the recommended daily intake of calcium of 800mg. A large green salad has as much calcium as a glass of milk, plus it’s well absorbed (as long as there’s not too much spinach in it, as this can block calcium absorption). A bowl of porridge made with rolled oats has 100mg of calcium – add some fortified soya milk and some dried figs, and it’s getting up to half your daily dose, just in one bowl!

As a relatively fit and healthy woman in her mid 40’s, I don’t have to worry too much at the moment about my bone health, but in 10 years time or so, once the menopause has hit big stylie, then calcium becomes more of an issue. Osteoporosis is a massive problem in the western world, and dairy is promoted as a necessity to keep bones healthy. However, it seems that maybe dairy might be part of the problem. Countries with the highest dairy consumption also have the highest number of people with osteoporosis - something to discuss another day.
Sesame seeds really are an incredible source of calcium - there is a fabulous 975mg in just 100g. However, being so tiny, that's a lot of seeds to consume in one day! By incorporating them into a wholefood diet, it's pretty easy. Being a hummus addict, I get a good dollop of sesame in the tahini, one of the key hummus ingredients. They can be added to cereals, baking, salads, stews and used in lots of Asian dishes. Sesame can be an allergen for some though, so it's not for everyone which is a shame, as it's also an amazing source of iron, magnesium, selenium and zinc. Quite something for such a tiny seed.
I have found an amazing 'bread' stick for dipping that not only tastes amazing (almost cheesy without the cheese) but is gluten free and contains calcium boosting sesame and chickpea all in one. Use it to dip in some hummus or other tahini containing dip, and your bones will be just zinging with strength and happiness!

Chickpea and sesame dipper sticks
1 cup chickpea flour (gram/besan/garbanzo)
3 tbspoon sesame seeds
1/2 tspoon salt
2 tbspoon fresh lemon thyme
1 tspoon olive/sesame oil
up to 1/4 cup water
Heat the oven to 180oC. You can toast your sesame seeds if you like to bring out the flavour, but the sticks work just as well untoasted.
Place the flour, sesame seeds, salt and thyme into a bowl and mix together. Stir in the oil then add the water a little at a time, stirring all the time, until you get a good supple dough. Knead for a couple of minutes until all the ingredients are incorporated, adding a little more flour if it gets a bit sticky. Flatten the dough into a disk, then place on a sheet of baking paper. Place another sheet on top and roll out until the dough is really thin - 3-5 mm if possible. Carefully peel off the top layer, leaving the dough on the bottom layer, and slice the dough into sticks with a knife. Prick each stick with a fork a few times so it doesn't puff up when cooking. Place the dough and the baking paper underneath onto a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or so but check after 10 -  you want a golden brown top. Too light and the sticks are not crispy, too browned and they're a bit hard on your teeth! Once ready, remove from the oven and leave to cool. Then break up the sticks where you have previously cut them and they're ready to eat. Happy dipping!
NB: these sticks soften after a few hours, so are best eaten soon after cooking. If you have any left over, leave out in the kitchen, not in a plastic tub, or they will sadly go soft.