Miso Noodle Soup (serves 1)

Miso noodle soup is quick to make and extremely healthy.  This makes it possible to make it just for yourself whilst your family eats their regular meal, or the recipe can be increased to offer the entire family a healthy alternative. By introducing it as a replacement for your usual meals, you can lose weight the healthy way.

Ingredients

·      400ml boiling water

·      1 nest (50g) egg noodles (choose noodles that cook in between 3-5 minutes).

·      ½ medium carrot, peeled and cut into batons

·      ¼ chilli, finely chopped (optional)

·      1 thumbnail size piece of ginger, finely chopped

·      1 tablespoon Miso paste

·      1 teaspoon fish sauce

·      1 teaspoon soy sauce

·      2 spring onions, thinly sliced

·      1 tablespoon sea salad

Directions

1.     Add the boiling water to a saucepan on the hob at medium heat and return to the boil.

2.     Add noodles, carrot, ginger and chilli and boil for 4 minutes (or however long the particular brand of noodles take).

3.     Take off the heat and whisk in miso paste (it is important that the water is not boiling at this stage, as this would kill the good bacteria).

4.     Add seaweed, spring onion, soy sauce and fish sauce. Allow to stand for one minute.

5.     Taste and if necessary season with more soy sauce.

Health Benefits

·        Miso Paste: is recommended as a B12 source for vegans. It is very high in sodium and also has high levels of the minerals zinc, manganese, and copper. In addition, a single tablespoon of miso contains 2 grams of protein for just 25 calories. It also provides vitamin B2, vitamin E, vitamin K, tryptophan, choline, dietary fiber, linoleic acid and lecithin. Miso strengthens your immune system. It is high in antioxidents and linoleic acid, therefore preventing signs of ageing and helping to maintain good skin.

·      Ginger: is a good source of potassium, magnesium, copper, manganese and vitamin B6. Ginger helps to boost the immune system as well helping the body to digest fatty foods and break down proteins.

·      Chillies: contain a chemical called Capsaicin, which is responsible for the heat. Capsaicin increases the metabolic rate, which aids in the fat burning process. Eating chillies can raise your metabolic rate by up to 23% for about 3 hours. Eating chillies lower your cholesterol and reduce the amount of fibrin in the blood, which thus lowers the blood's tendency to clot. Eating chillies can help significantly control insulin levels after eating a meal.

·      Seaweed: is one of the most complete mineral sources available; it contains calcium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, vanadium and zinc. Seaweed is high in carotenoids, flavonoids and alkaloid antioxidants. Sea vegetables are an excellent source of vitamin K, the B-vitamin folate, the B-vitamins riboflavin, pantothenic acid. They also contain measurable amounts of vitamins C and E. Seaweed is high in vitamins, antioxidants and minerals and therefore helps with weight loss, anti-ageing and clearing your system of toxins.

Healthy Hummus

I have been asked to develop some recipes for www.healthysay.ie. So there will be a few healthy recipes up over the next month.

Hummus can be eaten with crudités as a healthy snack or light lunch, or as a filling for baked potatoes with roasted Mediterranean vegetables, or with tabouleh as a filling for pita breads. Many hummus recipes use large quantities of olive oil and tahini, although these are healthy for you – due to their high calorie content – they are better eaten in moderation. This recipe manages to remain light and smooth by adding natural yoghurt as a replacement for these high calorie ingredients.

Ingredients

·      1 tin organic chickpeas, drained

·      1 tablespoon light tahini paste

·      ½ small clove garlic (be careful with the amount that you add, as raw garlic can overpower the other flavours)

·      ½-1 lemon, juiced (depending on size)

·      1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

·      3 tablespoons natural yoghurt

·      1 level teaspoon Maldon sea salt

·      a few grinds of cracked black pepper

Directions

1.           Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and blend with a hand blender, or alternatively put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend.   
2.           For an addition to this basic hummus recipe you can add one of the following ingredients before blending: ground cumin, harissa paste, chilli, olives, or coriander leaves.

Health Benefits

·      Chickpeas: contain a wealth of phytonutrients, which act as antioxidants and as anti-inflammatory nutrients. Chickpeas are high in molybdenum, manganese, folate, protein, dietary fiber, copper, phosphorus and iron. The fiber in chickpeas is mostly insoluble; therefore it remains intact until it reaches the large intestine, which allows it to provide support for our digestive tract.

·      Tahini: contains B Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 and B15. B Vitamins promote healthy cell growth and division, including that of red blood cells. They also increase your metabolism, enhance the immune and nervous system and help to maintain healthy skin and muscle tone. Tahini is also high in calcium and is far easier for our body to digest than milk. Tahini is a good source of essential fatty acids and vitamin E, which therefore help maintain healthy skin and prevent signs of ageing. It is also a good source of protein.

·      Natural yoghurt: is rich in potassium, calcium, protein, zinc and B vitamins, including B-12.  Yoghurt strengthens and stabilizes the immune system and the good bacteria present kills the bad bacteria in your body. In transforming milk to yoghurt, lactose is converted to lactic acid, which helps in the digestion of lactose, thus allowing our body to absorb the calcium present in diary products.

·      Extra virgin olive oil: is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants (it has a particularly high and wide-ranging polyphenols content) and Vitamin E. It helps to reduce cholesterol, increases metabolism and has positive effect on anti-ageing and healthy skin.

Argan Oil

Argan oil is the latest drizzle to find its way into the chef’s armament in some of Europe’s top restaurants; whilst argan based beauty products are being touted as the ‘next big thing’ amongst those trying to postpone the loss of their youthful looks. Although relatively unheard of, argan oil is not a new product; it has been used by Berbers in Morocco for hundreds of years – as culinary oil as well as a beauty product.

The Argan tree is unique to southwest Morocco and Unesco has designated a large area there as a Biosphere Reserve. The Argan tree is extremely important to the region; due to its high heat resistance it helps fight desertification and the cooperatives where the oil is produced supply jobs and help with the local economy.

Women-run cooperatives are opening across the region; these cooperatives help keep traditional methods of production and share their profits with the workers. These jobs are desperately needed; Morocco is listed as 127th in the UN Human Development Index and has an illiteracy rate nearing 50%. Without the argan oil cooperatives there would be very little to financially sustain the region and help with its development. Many of the women working in these cooperatives would not be able to send their children to school without this new source of income.

The process of making argan oil begins by harvesting the fruit in July and August, which is then dried in the sun; this makes the skin easier to remove. The skin is removed by hand and fed to goats. The next step is to crack the nut open to reveal the kernel; the kernel is used to make the oil, whilst the nut is used as firewood. The kernel is gently roasted for the culinary oil or left as it is for the skin product. To make the oil the kernel is ground down to a paste in hand operated stone mills. The paste is then mixed with water to separate the oil; the left over paste is used to make argan soap. Every part of the argan fruit is used with no waste at all.

Some cooperatives have introduced machinery into the making of their oil because they feel this gives them a more consistent product with a higher shelf life and by not using water they have a purer oil. Local women still work in these cooperatives cracking the nut between two stones to reveal the kernel and because of the increased production, these machines have not displaced any people from their jobs. Proof in this oil being of a high quality is in Cooperative Amal, which uses this method, receiving the International Slow Food award for biodiversity in 2001.

Argan oil is expensive, but definitely worth the price – it takes 15 hours of labour and 30kg of nuts to produce just a single litre of argan oil. The health benefits of argan oil are numerous; the culinary oil is high in essential fatty acids as well as being high in unsaturated fats, whilst the beauty product is high in vitamin E and antioxidants. Both products have been used for centuries to keep Berbers healthy and protect their skin and hair from the harshness of their environment.

Argan oil has a sweet hazelnut like taste and goes well as a salad dressing, especially with goat’s cheese. It can be used drizzled over roasted vegetables, to add further depth to couscous, as a dip for bread, or my favourite, Amlou: argan oil mixed with honey and toasted almonds, which is spread on toast for breakfast. Always add argan oil after cooking to preserve its health benefits.

Argan oil is a useful weapon to add to your store cupboard arsenal; you can buy it in specialised stores and delis or online from the following websites:

http://www.wildwoodgroves.com/

http://www.belazu.com/index.html

http://www.arganoil.nu/

Bag Of Fire

On a previous trip to Thailand I decided to bring back some mind-blowing Thai chillies, known in Thailand as prik kee noo (mouse shit chillies). So on my last day in Bangkok, I went in search for them. Outside my hotel I waved down a tuk-tuk and asked the driver to drop me off at the nearest market. After weaving in and out of the Bangkok traffic at a death-defying speed and flying straight towards on-coming traffic with my eyes tightly shut, I was extremely relieved when we arrived at our destination alive, even though I had inhaled what felt like a pack of cigarettes worth of smog. As I rummaged through the market I came across pots, DVDs, counterfeit jeans; but there was no food to be found. I then realised there was no food here at all, so I decided to go on a walking mission to find the elusive chillies.

Marrakech and Essaouira

The driver of our ‘petit taxi’ is constantly pressing his horn, as if by magic it will make the melee in front of us vanish. It appears they drive on the right hand side in Marrakech but that is not always clear to see; the middle of the road seems more favoured by our taxi driver. When we arrive the owner of Riad Dar Tayib, Vincent, opens the door and we are immediately transported to another world of tranquillity, harnessed by the North-African decor and French style.

The English Market, Cork

When returning home to Cork I always like to go for a leisurely stroll through the English Market. Whether I am buying produce or not I am perpetually drawn to those victual-laden passages; I do not feel as if I am home until I have fulfilled this ritual. This could be due to the fact that it has been around since 1788 – a constant part of Corkonian life, surviving famine, revolution, fire and all the other events we have had to endure in our enthralling history – or just because I like good food. I am often asked where the name comes from; a question I cannot answer. It has had various names over the centuries, from Princes Street Market to Root Market; however the origin of the current name is lost in history.

I often come to the English Market on a Saturday in pursuit of ingredients for our family’s traditional Sunday fry up. I always begin at Landon’s, who specialise in bacon and have more varieties than one would think possible. It is a hard choice to decide the type of bacon you will want the following day, but one I enjoy making. It would make sense to get the eggs next, seeing as they are in the next stall, but I never do. There is no purpose in the direction I take, I walk aimlessly stopping when I please – perhaps this is why I find the market so relaxing.