Poached and Roasted Cauliflower

Raise your hand if you love cauli!!!!! It is SO versatile! I've found lately that I have been more making things like Cauli rice and couscous, cauli patties etc... and tbh - I am SO sick of finding tiny cauliflower granules allllll over the kitchen haha. So I decided the other day I would try something different.  

Admittedly I got the idea from a lady at Wholefood Merchants in Ferntree Gully - and I tried it and thought... yeah not too shabby! BUT could be better! So I did a little tweaking ( I accidentally wrote twerking the first time haha ) and the end result is absolutely deliciously amazing.  

Because we are eating the whole cauli - Leaves and all! And yes, that includes the stalk! PLEASE buy organic!!!!!!!! The last thing you need is to be influxing your poor liver with chemicals and pesticides! So Please, buy organic. I'll say it one more time... Please! 

Now if you're a vegan and you miss cheese, I think you especially will love this recipe (please omit the ghee for a fat of choice like flaxseed oil) it kind of reminds me of cauliflower and cheese sauce from when I was younger - however since dairy is the devil, there's been a need to search for cheesy goodness elsewhere...without the food additives like the bio cheese or Daiya has!

So without further adue - here's introducing Nutritional Yeast! 

For those of you that haven't yet entered the realm of Nutritional Yeast, I highly recommend you do. ESPECIALLY if you have just come off dairy and are missing the cheesy goodness. It kind of reminds me of Parmesan... but without the ten day old dirty sock smell!  Nutritional Yeast is so good for you and contains some really essential vitamins and minerals. It is a really great protein, so fantastic for vegans and vegetarians alike, and especially good for those following a Ketogenic Paleo diet. And also has Magnesium, Copper and Manganese, Fibre, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, B12, Zinc and Panthothenic Acid. <-- see, I used a big word so it must be good for you!

When it comes to your poaching liquid, make sure that the vegetable stock you use, actually contains vegetables. I have noticed some on the shelves lately that say things like "Extract"... um no mr marketing man! I want real vegetables in my stock please. If you can and you aren't too time poor (or perhaps you are super organised and have some pre made) make your own stock. It's an awesome way to utilize your left over fruits and veg and herbs and at least you know what's in it! 

So I realllllly think you will enjoy this recipe. It is beautiful as a main, although sometimes we have it as a side dish to a roast. It's super satisfying either way. 

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Recipe

Serves - 4 -

Time 1 hr 20 mins

What you need:

 1 Litre Vegetable Stock (pref. Organic) 

1 Large Cauliflower, leaves and stalk on 

3 Cloves Garlic 

3 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast 

1 Tablespoon Ghee or Olive oil for Vegan/Plant Based

Salt and Pepper to taste 

What to do: 

Find a saucepan that your whole cauliflower fits in and put the cauli in. Cover with your Stock. If 1 litre of stock isn't enough to cover your cauli, then top up with some water. Bring to a boil, then once boiling, turn to a low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  

Once finished poaching using tongs, carefully lift the cauliflower out of the liquid and place onto a baking sheet that has a layer of tin foil. Don't throw away the poaching liquid - you can put this in a container into the fridge and use it again another day.  

On your poached cauli, add your Ghee ( Or Olive Oil ) , Nutritional Yeast and your Garlic. Don't worry about rubbing it in, the residual heat and the oven will melt the ghee and it will soak into the nooks and crannies. Season lightly and then bring the foil up the sides of the cauli and wrap at the top (so none of the liquid drains) 

Place in the oven for 20 minutes on 180 degrees. Take out of the oven and remove from foil, pour the juices over the top of the cauli and place back in the oven, uncovered for another 20 minutes to brown.  Pull out from the oven after twenty minutes and serve. 

This really is a delicious way of serving Cauli - let me know what you think in the comments below! 

Quinoa Porridge

Oats are definitely over rated and I personally think they taste like chalk and feel like cardboard when you eat them. I'm not saying I've ever eaten chalk... but I just think that if chalk had a taste... it would be oats. Bleh, Horrid.

Quinoa porridge is SO amazingly simple and delicious. My son will pretty much eat anything... he's pretty good... but when it comes to this porridge... he HOOVERS it! Like seriously. Gone in a flash. He's 2.5 and I swear when there is something he likes, he eats quicker than I do...and more of it.

I've tried a few quinoa porridges in my time and some of them I have found respulsive admittedly. I'd hate to name the particular restaurant I'm talking about that serves it... but they should seriously contemplate taking it off the menu IMMEDIATELY! But who knows - maybe you'll hate my Quinoa porridge and I'm just too picky!..... hahah jokes. There's no way. Cause this Quinoa Porridge is a rock star.  

Quinoa can be a fickle bitch in some peoples digestion...and is kind of a paleo grey area. Some people say you can eat it... and some say you can't. I always air on the side of caution... however I have done many tests after re introducing it to my diet and it doesn't seem to affect me. In saying that - when I eat quinoa in this form (not as pasta) I ALWAYS sprout it! And I think that's a good lesson for anyone who has digestive issues to learn. IF you are going to eat grains or legumes, always always always sprout them! Sprouting breaks down the saponins and makes the nutrients more bio available. This means your digestion isn't working as hard to break down the food mass to get to the nutrients because its already kind of 'half digested' when you eat it. You can learn how to sprout your Quinoa HERE . It's super easy and the health benefits are endless. 

I always do a larger batch than what the recipe is for below, and this is because I like to have it on hand sometimes for the week! Some peoples recipe calls for adding fruits and such, but I have kept this plain so you can keep it in the fridge, and then every day add something new to it to change the flavour. Today we had Raspberries, Cacao Nibs and Chia Seeds (You can sprout those too!) , Tomorrow I plan on mashing a banana and mixing it through with some slivered Almonds. So good!

I use the Macro Organic Tri Colour Quinoa - Different colours of produce mean different nutrients which is why I get this one. 

So enjoy this recipe! It's definitely a crowd pleaser. I would love to hear your experiences and what you think in the comments! Happy Cooking :) 

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RECIPE

Serves - 3 - 

Time 45 m

What you will need: 

1 Cup Sprouted Quinoa 

2 Cups Almond Milk (Or coconut milk) 

1 Vanilla Bean , scraped. 

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon 

Manuka Honey to serve. 

Toppings of your choice. 

What to do: 

In a Saucepan, place your sprouted Quinoa and your milk of choice. 

Bring to a simmer over medium low heat and stir occasionally.  

Add your Cinnamon and Vanilla Bean .

Simmer until the milk is almost absorbed, but there is still a little bit of liquid left.  

I'm being serious when I say - That's it. There's nothing else apart from serve with your topping of choice and enjoy!  

Don't add the Manuka while cooking though as the heat will destroy the benefits of the Honey, instead only add the honey as you are serving, once the porridge has cooled enough to be edible.  The little blessings we call Bee's work way too hard to have us ruin their honey!

Thyme for Pumpkin and Balsamic Quinoa Spaghetti (GF, VE)

Sometimes I think our microorganisms tell us what we need to eat by sending us signals like cravings.

In fact, it's pretty well known in the land of Nutritional Medicine that our cravings actually stem from our good and bad gut flora sending signals to our brain that tell us what we should eat.

'Bad' microbes feed on sugars and naughty fats mostly, whereas 'Good' microbes feed on pre biotics and fibrous foods such as root vegetables, leafy greens, and sugars from carbohydrates. So it goes without saying, that if you are craving junk 'food' ( I use the word food in inverted commas because when you crave junk, you are actually consuming man made things made up of chemicals and by products of other food stuffs) you may actually have an imbalance of good and bad microbes... and the 'bad' microbes are Winning!

So maybe today, I'm the one winning because when I woke up this morning all I could think about was Pumpkin.... and Pasta. I swear I'm not pregnant...I've just given birth to twins, and if I am, well then so help me god!

Weird combination I know, but hey - I used to eat peanut butter on salted potato crisps dipped in puréed apple sauce when I was pregnant... So how bad could Pasta and Pumpkin actually be?

Turns out, it's actually amazing! 

It's not every day that things in the kitchen go the right way, but today it was Corinne 1 - Bin 0

Now if you suffer digestive issues or suffer from an auto immune disease or condition, it's super important that you continue to look after your digestive health. So unless you know that your gut can handle Quinoa, you may want to opt for delicious Zoodles (Zucchini Noodles.....duh!) or Spoodles (Sweet Potato Noodles... please don't cook up a Spoodle... that's animal cruelty) 

I experience Celiacs disease ( I don't like to say the words I 'Have' because 'having' so many things wrong with my body seems like a lot to deal with... 'experiencing' makes it seem more like it comes and goes which seems less to deal with... crazy mind? Maybe...but hey! It works ) so although I know I have impaired digestion because of the celiacs, I also experience an Auto Immune disease ( or 3, well 1 now because 2 are in remission), so I'm always VERY careful before I put anything into my mouth. 

Since I've been batting around the bush for a while now (3 years to be exact) I have done tests on my Hashimoto's antibodies, Lupus Antibodies and IC antibodies, as well as my inflammation markers after re introducing Quinoa, and lucky for me it doesn't seem to contribute to any dis.ease within my body. If it's different for you and you don't deal well with Quinoa, please PLEASE change to a pasta that suits your body like the vegetable noodles I mentioned above. But NO GLUTEN! If you're trying to cut down inflammation, gluten Is your worst enemy and if you have any auto immune disease, you really need to stay away from it, hell, even treat yourself as Celiac. It IS going to contribute to your immune attack because EVERYONE with auto immune disease, has leaky gut and this is what causes gluten to get into the blood stream.

ANYWAY! Bon Appe Enjoy! (Pasta's Italian and pumpkin isn't so I thought I'd meet you half way on the Bon Appetite)

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Recipe

Time - Well that depends on if you have children and babies that need attention - but shouldn't take longer than 1/2 hour if you're un interrupted and don't cut yourself when you chop your veggies.

Serves - 4

You will need:

1/4 Butternut pumpkin steamed and pureed ( or if you are time plenty, roast that bad boy for more flavour ) 

3/4 can of Coconut cream

1 Diced Tomato

1/2 Red Onion

3 Cloves of Garlic ( or if you're like me, 3 cloves of garlic is actually a bulb...) 

1 teaspoon of Thyme

1 teaspoon Rosemary 

 2 teaspoons Ghee (no dairy for gut impaired people! Ghee is pure animal fat with no dairy proteins, source from your local health food shop or Indian grocer)

Pinch Nutmeg (don't go crazy with it, you don't want it to taste like a pumpkin pie... it's spaghetti after all!) 

 1/2 pack Quinoa Pasta

 Balsamic Vinegar 

 Salt and Pepper to taste

What do you do? 

Steam your pumpkin (or Roast it) until it is soft enough to be puréed. 

Once steamed enough (before falling apart) pull the pumpkin out of the water with tongs and place in a bowl.  You don't want to drain the pumpkin completely as the retained water will help puree it.

Cook your pasta in the pumpkin water according to the instructions on the pack.

Mash or Purée your pumpkin (with a hand masher, or food processor either way is fine) 

In a deep fry pan (preferrably with a lid... but it's not essential) sauté your onion and garlic in the ghee until fragrant and the onion is translucent.

Once you can smell the onions and garlic from where you are standing, place your herbs in your hand and rub your hands together over the pan to wake them up.

Cook for about 30 second until the herbs are fragrant and back to life and then add the puréed pumpkin and diced tomato.

Using a wooden spoon, mix together until blended thoroughly and then add the coconut cream and nutmeg. 

Stir occasionally to keep the mixture combined as the liquid and solids may separate. 

Cook for 10 minutes. This is where the lid comes in handy. If your mixture is looking more gluggy than saucey, place the lid on your pan, this will keep the moisture in and stop more moisture from evaporating. If you dont have a lid and your mixture is a little gluggy, ad water 1/4 cup at a time until it is smooth and creamy. Preferably use the pumpkin and pasta water as the starch will help combine the sauce and the pumpkin flavour will act like vegetable broth.

Once your pasta is al dente (FOR THE LOVE OF PETE DON'T DRAIN THE PASTA) using tongs pick the pasta up from the water, quickly drain and place the pasta in the pan. It's actually a good thing to not drain the pasta to buggery because the starch will help the sauce go glossy and stick to the spaghetti. 

Place on your plate and season with salt and pepper to your liking and then drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar.

I hope you enjoy this tummy loving recipe, please let me know what you think. I'm keen to hear your feedback! 

Veggies, Love and Peace,