Wednesday night parsnips

I do love a good parsnip! And the ones that turned up in the Riverford veg box yesterday were voluptuous and ready for some action.
The usual route (or should it be root ;)) for any parsnips that enters the house is spicy parsnip soup, swiftly followed by a roasting. Simple but packed with flavour. But this weeks veg box contained a parsnip recipe that I hadn't tried before - skordalia - so the fate of the gorgeously creamy roots was sealed.
I had never heard of skordalia before, but apparently it's a side dish from Greece traditionally made with potatoes; Bob the Riverford chef had substituted parsnips for the spuds, and it does taste might fine.
As with most recipes I come across, it did need The Sensitive Foodie touch to make it dairy and gluten free; I also used whole almonds and chopped them as I like to have my nuts with optimum fibre content and I substituted flaxseed oil for the olive oil to increase the omega 3 content. I used Mrs Crimbles breadcrumb mix as that was open, but have notice that Waitrose now do their own gluten free breadcrumbs, which are completely rice based. Of course, if you're ok with wheat and gluten, then go for normal fresh breadcrumbs as I can imagine they make the dish even more thick and gloopy.

The final product was seriously gorgeous, and would go perfectly with a nut or lentil loaf and a pile of roast potatoes. Not that's what we had for dinner! But the quiche was still good with it!
You may not think of parsnips as a 'healthy food' but, as with all veggies, they do having surprising nutritional benefits. For one they are a great source of soluble fibre, so keep our guts healthy and won't upset those with IBS too much. They also have a good amount of vitamin C, potassium and B vitamins, which are all needed for cell activity. There's even a reasonable amount of manganese as well as a whole range of phytonutrients that are thought to have an anti-inflammatory effect and help protect against certain cancers. Not bad for a simple root vegetable!
So here is the recipe - there was a little left over, so I'm looking forward to lunch!
Parsnip skordalia (Riverford recipe with Sensitive Foodie adjustments!)
500g parsnips

400ml dairy free milk
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, peeled
30g gluten free breadcrumbs/fresh breadcrumbs
handful almonds, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
glug of flaxseed oil/olive oil
salt and pepper
Peel and chop the parsnips into small chunks and pop into a saucepan with the dairy free milk, bay leaf and garlic cloves. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes or so until the parsnip is soft and mushy. Turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
Strain the parsnips and garlic but reserve the milk. Discard the bay leaf. Pop the parsnip and garlic into a food processor with a little of the cooking milk and blend until smooth. Add the almonds, breadcrumbs and some salt and pepper and blitz again for a moment to combine everything together. Add the oil and lemon juice and blitz briefly. Check the flavours and consistency and add more seasoning. milk or lemon as needed. Serve and enjoy!

Amazingly tasty lentil and walnut paté

Life has been so busy over the last month, The Sensitive Foodie blog has been somewhat abandoned and forlorn. However, there's been lots of activity in the kitchen so there's plenty of new recipes and ideas to share - I just need to find more time to write about them!
Now I may have mentioned before (once or twice!) that I do love a bit of hummus - it makes a fantastic dairy free lunch option, is easy to make, even easier to buy. But no matter how much I like it, there is only so much hummus that one girl can eat! It's time for a new lunch time option that's equally enjoyable and flavoursome.
One of the objections people have when it comes to dairy free or plant based food is that it lacks flavour and depth. As The Sensitive Foodie, it's my mission to prove them wrong, and I can definitely say that this paté hits the mark with both of these. On top of that, it's packed with essential omega 3 fatty acids, tonnes of fibre and protein as well as fabulous amounts of magnesium, folate, manganese and iron.
When I used to eat meat, I did enjoy eating paté but did have my concerns about what exactly was in it - especially those with a course texture that had chewy bits in! Checking on the ingredients list, an ardenne pate, for example contains pork liver, pork, pork fat as well as pork rind with some dextrose (sugar), salt, herbs and preservatives added in. Hmmm, not really sounding too tasty now. Flavoursome, maybe, but packed full of saturated fat and cholesterol and no fibre, it's a combination of toxins heading straight for the belly.
This lentil and walnut paté, however, is packed full of fibre, as the whole food has been included, and no cholesterol or preservatives. Texture wise, it's pretty similar to a smooth meat paté, only softer due to the lower fat levels. It will last in the fridge for about 5 days. Oh and don't forget that this is not only dairy free but gluten free too.
Personally, I cook my own lentils from the dried pulse, usually preparing a big batch to use in more than one dish. If you just haven't got the time, or the lentils to hand, then used tinned, but don't forget to drain and rinse really well under running water to wash away the salty fluid from the tin.
Everyone who has tasted this has been impressed - even my father in law - so give it a go and give your tongue, and body, a tasty lunch time treat.
Lentil and walnut pate

3/4 cup walnuts
1 cup cooked green lentils
1 onion diced
2 cloves roasted garlic (optional)
2 tablespoons tamari*
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
First, heat the oven to 160oC and toast your walnuts for a few minutes so they're lightly browned. Take out and cool. Heat a little olive oil or water in a small pan and sauté the onion and bay leaf together until it's lightly browned and soft. Leave to cool and remove the bay leaf. Once the onion and walnuts are cool, pop the walnuts, lentils, onion, garlic, tamari and lemon juice into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Taste and add extra tamari, lemon juice and salt and pepper as required.
Serve as you would any paté and enjoy!

*tamari is a wheat free, gluten free soya sauce, made from whole soya beans and brewed in wooden kegs. I buy mine in Holland and Barrett.

Fast food my style

Some weeks are just so busy that there just doesn't seem to be time to fit everything in, including writing blog posts, so this is going to be short and sweet!
Time is a real issue in so many peoples lives, trying to juggle work, home, families and hopefully fun.

Lack of time is often the reason people give for relying on processed ready meals or takeaways. And I'm no purist; the odd takeaway is great. But regularly relying on fast food carries not only a financial cost, but a huge health cost too.
Having to avoid dairy and yeast means, for me, that I cannot rely on processed foods as basically one or the other of these allergens appear in some form. So my food sensitivities have actually been a great blessing, as they have enabled me to make better choices, and eat real, nourishing food.  I'm also fortunate that I really love cooking, but there are times when I just don't have much time to spend in the kitchen.
That's where planning ahead comes in. Working shifts, every week for me is different. So thinking about what is happening each week, who is where and needs feeding when can get a little complex, but with the right planning I can usually ensure that the whole family gets a whole, nourishing meal every day, even when I'm not there.
As my kids get older, I feel it's important that they learn to feed themselves well, so sometimes they have to do it; my role is to ensure they have the right produce to hand and a reminder note of what they need to do!
I've found that one pot meals and stews have become a really important feature of our weekday meals - quick, simple and easy to reheat. You can also make it hearty and filling, essential for my growing giant-boy teenager! This particular hotpot is inspired by a couple of Jamie Oliver recipes. Roasting the sweet potato intensifies the flavour and enhances the texture; using passata creates a deeper, richer flavour in a relatively short period of time. This may not be as quick as one of Jamie's 15 minute meals (can you ever really cook one of his recipes in 15 minutes anyway?) but it can all be done and dusted in 30 minutes.
This dish is highly nutritious and positively bursting with fibre, which is essential for health; not only a healthy gut but a healthy heart too. To make it even more heart healthy, sprinkle some ground flaxseed at the end to add some essential omega 3 fatty acid. The sweet potato and beans are filling in themselves, but if you need to fill hungry tummies, then serve with rice, or even wholemeal pitta bread. And don't forget to add some green veg on the side too!
Red bean and roasted sweet potato hotpot

2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes
olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 red pepper chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 packet passata/400g tin tomatoes
1 400g tin kidney beans
thyme
chilli flakes
salt and pepper
First, heat the oven to 180oC. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into medium sized chunks. Lightly grease a baking tin, pop the sweet potato chunks on it and roast in the oven until they start to brown slightly and feel soft to touch - about 15 minutes. In the mean time, heat a little olive oil in a large pan and sauté the onion until soft. Add the garlic for a minute but don't let it burn. Add the peppers, thyme and chilli flakes and sauté for a couple more minutes. Pour in the passata and mix well. Bring to boiling point then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the peppers are soft. Add the beans. By now the sweet potato should be cooked, so take out the oven and add to the pot, stirring well. Simmer for another 5 minutes until the flavours have perfused, season to taste and serve. Simple, tasty and whole!

Just what I needed - lemon drizzle cake

I had a real craving for lemon drizzle cake tonight. No idea why, or what even made me think of it, but once I had, it had to be made.
Researching and trying out new recipes and ideas is great, but it  does take time - and sometimes it's just an excuse not to be doing something else as I'm very easily distracted, which in tonight's case was write some posts for this blog. So to appease my conscious, I've decided to share the cake with you (virtually that is - shame you can't taste it as well, it's gorgeous!).

Unfortunately, I can't claim that this cake is free from refined sugar and oil, because it's definitely not! But it is dairy free and egg free, and easy to swap to gluten free flour if needed, so it meets a whole variety of 'free from' needs. Making cakes without egg is always a challenge, as the protein in the egg binds the other ingredients together.
A great alternative is some ground flaxseed soaked in a little water for a few minutes. It swells and goes really gloopy, great for sticking everything together. However, I've found that for many cakes, you just need to whisk the wet ingredients together really well before you add them to the dry, and use an extra shaking of baking powder to make sure it rises and becomes light and fluffy.  It can be a bit hit and miss, as sometimes the mix is just too lose and light, and collapses as you take it out of the tin. Tonight was a lucky night though, and the cake stayed together beautifully whilst being incredibly light - no regrets about leaving out the flax.
One other great thing about flaxseed is that it is a fabulous source of omega 3 fatty acids. There's not many plant foods which provide such good amounts, so it's worth adding in to your cooking where ever you can.
Having already confessed that this cake is not free from refined sugars and oils, I feel the need to make a quick comment on agave syrup. Although it's marketed as a healthier sugar alternative, it's not. Apparently it has a higher fructose content than high fructose corn syrup, which is thought to be one of the major contributors to the obesity problem as it appears in a large amount of processed foods.  The agave syrup we buy is not a natural sap from the blue agave plant (a type of yucca plant - tequila is made from it too!) but a commercially produced highly processed, highly calorific sweet gloop. The problem with processed fructose is that it doesn't get broken down and digested in the gut like simple sugars; rather it goes straight to the liver where it's processed into fat, completely by-passing the energy producing molecule stage.
The fructose in these syrups is not the same as natural fructose, the sugar that's found in whole fruits. This type is ok, partly because it's accompanied by so many goodies like vitamins and fibre. It's the processing that creates the bad stuff.
So if it's so bad, why have I not just used normal sugar? It's still all nutrient-empty calories. For this cake, it's to help bind everything together. Plus there's not much of it - apparently, it becomes metabolically significant if you eat more than 25g of fructose a day*. So if you've been an eating angel all day, you can get away with it. Or, as I look at it, I only eat it on occasion so it's ok to use it now and then.
If I've put you off the agave, omit it and just add a little more sugar. Or replace the agave with flaxseed as mentioned above; can't say how it will come out though (that's my disclaimer!).
But if you just want to make a gorgeously light and tasty lemon drizzle cake that's vegan and 'free from' then do give this a try - it's worth it!
Lemon drizzle cake

250g self raising flour/gluten free flour

1 extra teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
170g unrefined caster sugar
2 tablespoons agave syrup
85mls organic rapeseed oil
1 cup non-dairy milk
zest of a lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
For the topping:
juice of a lemon
2 tablespoons demarera sugar
Grab a loaf tin, grease it and line with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 170oC. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Put the sugar, agave, oil, milk and lemon juice into a separate bowl and mix together well with a whisk. Add the lemon zest, stir well.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together well. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes or so until a toothpick comes out clean. Take out the the oven, but leave in the tin.
Mix the topping lemon juice and sugar together. Prick lots of holes into the cake with the toothpick and pour the mixture evenly over the top. Leave in the tin to cool for at least half an hour - it becomes easier to handle once it's cool.
Enjoy!

* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/agave-this-sweetener-is-f_b_537936.html

Chickpeas once more - in a bread!

The internet is a wonderful thing - quick access to information about any topic under the sun. Sometimes it's prudent to be careful and question where this information is coming from, particularly controversial points of view; for recipes though it's like having one massive cookery book at your finger tips with so much variety, abounding inspiration is available at every moment.
I can spend hours browsing websites and blogs, googling random ingredients and following a path of ingenuity and creativity. There's so many different options on offer, I tend to forget where I've been, and take ages finding that fascinating fact or idea that's tantalising the edge of my subconscious. Now I try to bookmark everything that I want to return to; that list is getting pretty long and unmanageable!
Recently I found an article featuring marvellous things to do with chickpeas (that old obsession returns once more!); this led me to a recipe for 'Eggy Breakfast Bread', a chickpea based bread, similar to cornbread but sweet http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/10/11/eggy-breakfast-bread/. Made with chickpea flour, it looked great, but I'm not so keen on sweet bread, so decided to omit the sugar and add in some savoury flavours.

I have to say, not only is it incredibly easy, the flavour and texture is fabulous. And totally moreish! Not being able to eat bread other than wraps and the occasional soda bread (home made version) due to my yeast intolerance, it was exciting to create something that was so tasty and felt so right in the mouth.
This recipe calls for flaxseed. If you've not come across it before, you're missing out. Nutritionally it's a brilliant plant source of omega 3, absolutely packed full of fibre, lignans (anti-oxidant phytonutrients) and other anti-oxidants. When mixed with water, flaxseed swells and can be used as an egg replacement in plant based cooking. When you see how it swells in a cup with a little water, you realise how it's going to swell in your gut. So it's not only good for healthy bowels, it will  help you stay full for longer if you're trying to lose weight.  Adding it to cereal in the morning is a wise thing to do!
Here is my savoury version of this bread. The herbs and spices can be played around with to create different flavours. I'm planning on experimenting with pesto (dairy free of course!) by omitting some of the oil and adding the equivalent pesto. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
Savoury chickpea bread

1 cup chickpea flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon vinegar (omit if yeast free diet)
1 cup of dairy free milk
2 tablespoons of olive oil or water
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Black pepper

Pre heat oven to 180oC and lightly grease a round metal pie tin.

Combine flaxseed with all the wet ingredients and whisk together really well. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients together, then pour the wet into the dry and stir until well mixed.

Pour batter into prepared tin and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until firm and slightly browned on   top. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes. Cut into triangles in the tin before removing.

Best eaten warm, it's still delicious cold - that's if you can leave it to get cold before gobbling it up!

Nutrient popping pesto

I love the smell of fresh sweet basil; one waft captures images of warm summer days, luscious ripe juicy tomatoes draped with fresh basil leaves accompanied by a crisp cool glass of wine. Opening up a jar of pesto can capture this image, even on the coldest winter day, an ideal sauce or marinade for a quick weekday supper. Of course, one of the main ingredients for traditional pesto is cheese so this is usually a no go area for me, unless I can find a jar in a "free from" range - fairly rare in the UK, non-existent here in India.
Recently I came across a bunch of sweet basil in the local vegetable store and just craved for pesto. There are many kinds of basil; Asian basil has a quite different flavour to the Mediterranean type, harsher and reminiscent of cloves which doesn't work quite so well on pasta, so finding sweet basil was a real boon. Basil is full of nutrient goodies and the oil in the leaves carry anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties so not only taste good but are good for you too. One agent, eugenol, inhibits the enzymes that mediate the inflammatory cascade and can  provide symptomatic relief in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and irritable bowel disease. Basil is also packed full of vitamin A which is essential for healthy eyes, skin and mucous membranes as well as vitamin K, essential for blood clotting and strengthening bones. Not only that but basil contains good amounts of iron, manganese and potassium, essential for healthy functional cells. So much in one leaf!

Traditionally, pesto is made with pine nuts, but these are also hard to find here and always seem to be rancid. On a recent trip to Kashmir, I was so excited to find a box of pine nuts, guaranteed not to have turned rancid, or so I was told. When I returned home and eagerly opened the box, I discovered that was because they were still in their shell. Peeling 100g of pine nuts is a seriously boring job!! So a nutrient popping alternative is walnuts (I also bought a massive bag of these, ready shelled!). People often shy away from nuts, fearful of their high fat content. But walnuts contain unsaturated fats and fabulous amounts of omega 3 alpha-linolenic acid, one of the few plant based foods to have this essential fatty acid. Omega 3 fats keep your heart and brain healthy - a walnut looks a bit like a brain and really is brain food. They also have fabulous amounts of the micro-mineral manganese, essential for blood sugar control, cellular energy and bone growth, and other minerals such as magnesium, copper and phosphate as well as a whole range of vitamins.
So for the pesto you need:
2 cups of basil leaves
1/3 cup of walnuts, lightly toasted and cooled
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1/2 cup of olive oil
salt to taste
Firstly place the walnuts in your blender or grinder and blitz for a couple of seconds. Add the basil and garlic and blitz again until broken down. Then add the olive oil a bit at a time, blitzing in between until you get the consistency you want and season with salt to taste. That's it! Same as normal pesto, just no cheese! Because there are no additives and preservatives apart from the salt, the bright fresh green colour fades pretty quickly, but it still keeps well in the fridge for a few days, or you can freeze it in small quantities if you want, but I think this takes out some of the active ingrediants and lowers it's healing properties. Of course then you can do whatever you want with it - spoon in to pasta, add more oil and use as a salad dressing or marinade or even a topping for a baked potato.
Dairy free, super healthy and delicious - what's not to like?

Yummy banana muffins two ways

I have a sweet tooth and just love cakes. Of course, every time I ate one it made me ill, so one of my first tasks when I discovered my milk intolerance was to find out how to make cake without dairy. It was actually quite easy as non-dairy spreads are easily available in the supermarkets - I used to buy Pure sunflower spread as it was light and didn't have a strong flavour, and is great for baking. And if milk was required, soya milk has a slight richness to it so works just as well.  The spread doesn't work quite so well as butter cream though, so a Victoria Sponge cake had to stay simple with just jam and a sugar dusting.
Coming out to India things became more complicated, and not just because I have the worst oven in the world that seems to emit more heat on the outside than inside. Mind you, at least it's gas, so when there's a power cut (a daily occurrence) the oven stays on! Butter is available in the shops, some forms of margarines but nothing dairy free. As there's only so many pots of Pure you can hide in your suitcase, I had to start investigating making cakes with oil. The structure of the cake is slightly heavier and tends towards greasy, but its a reasonable replacement.
One of my favourites is banana muffins. Bananas grow everywhere in Southern India - I even had a bunch hanging down in my garden the other day from the house behind. Unfortunately, they came and claimed them. Some are really small and sweet, others larger but equally tasty. It's easy to end up with a bunch ripe at the same time, so this is the perfect way to use them. I have two recipes - one with eggs, the other without so suitable for vegans or those with egg allergies.
Banana muffins version 1 (with egg)
3 ripe bananas mashed
1 cup of sugar (although if the bananas are really ripe, reduced sugar content as other wise just too sweet and of course it's healthier with less sugar!)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of oil (I use organic coconut oil but whatever you have - not olive oil though)
2 cups of flour (wholemeal is best - or atta in India)
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt (or less if you're not a salty person)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional but gives the added bonus of omega 3 oil)
All you need to do is mix together the sugar, oil and eggs until they are well combined then beat in the bananas. Stir in the remaining ingredients and add the walnuts if you're using. Spoon in to individual muffin papers or a greased muffin tin and bake for 30 minutes or until they feel cooked at 180oC. Pop the muffins out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack, then consume; perfect with an afternoon cup of tea!
Banana muffins version 2 (no egg)

Exactly the same ingredients as above but omit the eggs. This time, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Then add in the mashed banana and oil. The mix will be rather thick and dry, so stir in some soya milk, enough to give you a thick batter that doesn't stick to the spoon. Add in walnuts if you are using them. I also add a sprinkling of cinnamon and about 10g of flaxseed, blitzed in the blender to a powder. This makes them even healthier - flaxseeds are currently my number one superfood - will explain why on another post soon. If you are going for the flaxseed option, add in a bit more soya milk as flaxseed does make the muffins a bit more stodgy. Once everything is beautifully mixed together, fill your muffin cases and bake as above. These ones will be more dense than the eggy version but no less yummy. Try them out and let me know what you think.