Health4Tips: vegetables

Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Zucchini and vegetable slice

I've seen lots of zucchini slice recipes, usually involving up to 10 eggs, heavy cream, lots of hard cheese and rashers of bacon making them tasty but only suitable as "sometimes" food. I have given these recipes the LGH magic wand to make a more nutritious option that you can eat more regularly if you wish. It's tasty and also versatile and can be eaten hot or cold. Add whatever you have in the fridge for a delicious summer meal.
My version had zucchini, carrot, onion, fresh parsley, dill, peas, spinach and red salmon - but this recipe has flexibility to use whatever is in your fridge!

Ingredients
2 large zucchinis

2 large carrots
1 onion
a cup of whatever other vegetables you have handy (fresh frozen or canned) such as spinach, corn, peas, shallots, capsicum
fresh or dried herbs
1 cup of leftover rice or canned cannelini beans or chick peas for low GI energy
200g can red salmon (optional - consider adding diced tofu for protein if you are not a fish eater)
1 cup wholemeal self raising flour
5 eggs (whisked)

squeeze of lemon juice
1/2 cup grated low fat cheese

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 C
Grate your zucchini and carrots into a large bowl
Finely dice onion, herbs and any other veggies and add all into the bowl.
Add rice or drained beans and can of salmon, season with salt pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice

Mix everything well then add flour, whisked eggs and mix through
Sprinkle cheese on top
Spoon into a well greased cake tin /baking dish and bake for 30-40 mins or so until golden on top and springy. Slice into squares. Serve hot with a salad or vegetables, or cold .

Serves 8-10
Keep for 3 days in the fridge or 4 weeks in the freezer.

Bon appetit!

Thai green curry cauliflower and coconut soup

Privacy cauliflower , curry

Another rainy day means another soup recipe - and another successful experiment! This is another delicious fragrant and spicy soup that will warm you up, its vegetarian and vegan friendly, cheap and easy to make and is quite low in carbohydrates.

The major ingredient in this soup is cauliflower, and even those who are not cauli fans are unlikely to realise it! It has a similar texture to a potato soup but without all the high GI carbs. Cauliflower is a fantastic vegetable and as a part of the brassica family (also known as cruciferous vegetables) cauliflower contains antioxidants, phytonutrients, lots of fibre and is high in vitamin C, B6, K and folate. Many studies have suggested that increasing consumption of plant foods like cauliflower decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and overall mortality while promoting a healthy complexion, increased energy, and overall lower weight.

The coconut milk in my recipe does add more kilojoules and fat, but it is not too much across this big pot of soup, and I have chosen a reduced fat variety. If you are closely watching your saturated fat intake you could consider using evaporated milk and a few drops of coconut essence instead. If you're in Australia you can buy a low fat evaporated milk that is coconut flavoured for exactly this purpose!

INGREDIENTS:

1 large leek sliced
1 bunch coriander
1 whole head of cauliflower roughly chopped
4 cups vegetable stock
1 can reduced fat coconut milk
2 TBSP Thai green curry paste
1 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP minced garlic (or 2 cloves fresh garlic chopped)
1 tsp minced ginger
1 TBSP dried paprika
1 TBSP dried chilli flakes (omit if you don't like it spicy!)
Greek yoghurt and coriander leaves or sliced shallots to serve

METHOD:

Slice leek, roughly chop cauliflower, chop stems of coriander just above the roots, set leaves aside for later.

Toss onion and coriander stems in a heavy based pot with olive oil, garlic, ginger, paprika and chilli flakes and saute for a few minutes. If you are not a fan of coriander or you don't have any fresh, use 1 tsp of dried ground coriander seeds.
Add chopped cauliflower and saute for a few minutes. Add green curry paste and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant.

Add vegetable stock, coconut milk, a pinch of salt and black pepper.

Simmer for 30 minutes on low heat until cauliflower is very soft.

Whizz with a stick blender or food processor until your soup is thick and creamy.

I served in a bowl with a dollop of Greek yoghurt in the middle. Serve topped with chopped shallots or coriander leaves for extra bite, or lemongrass stems if you have them. Delicious with a slice of dense multigrain bread or a traditional sourdough to soak up the flavour.

Easily serves 6 hungry people :) Bon appetit!

Learning to love legumes - reblogging a great article by Sally Marchini

Privacy fibre , healthy eating

Well, seeing yesterday's post was about resistant starch and the gut microbiome, it's only fitting that today I want to share a post about one of the excellent natural sources of resistant starch- that would be legumes. Legumes are things like peas, beans and lentils and they are nutritional powerhouses with fantastic nutrient qualities, a great source of plant based protein, low GI carbohydrates and, you guessed it, resistant starch.

The blog I am sharing today is by my friend Sally Marchini - Accredited Practising Dietitian and the social media dietitian for Diabetes Counselling Online. Sally can be frequently found on social media and over at her own place, Marchini Nutrition, and she has a wonderful, practical and balanced approach to good healthy nutrition. Here's what Sally has to say about legumes (just click on the title below to go to the article)

Learning to love legumes

Her tips for using legumes in all sorts of ways are great and worth bookmarking for that day when you're all out of inspiration - I know I will.

Want to read more of Sally's great posts? A list of her blog posts can be found here - I recommend you have a look!
And don't forget to love your legumes!!

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Resistant starch and a healthy gut

Privacy fibre , healthy eating

Happy Monday morning everyone!

There's an interesting commentary in today's Medical Journal of Australia on resistant starch - we should be eating more of it !

So what is resistant starch?

Resistant starch is a type of dietary fibre that is fermented in the large bowel and feeds the gut microbiome- the bacteria in your bowel that do so much good. Despite the messages to eat more fibre, and people are doing that, most people are increasing their fibre with processed foods like cereals, which don't necessarily contain resistant starch. More fibre yes, but all the great health benefits, no. There is evidence that a healthy gut microbiome plays a role in preventing diabetes, obesity and some cancers, so its worth taking a moment to understand how to keep it healthy.

Click here for more from the CSIRO:

So where do you find resistant starch?

It can be found in some starchy fruits and vegetables (eg bananas and sweet potatoes), in legumes (have I told you how awesome beans, chick peas and lentils are lately?) and interestingly, in some cooked and cooled starchy foods. Cooking and cooling starchy foods like rice, pasta and potatoes, and eating them cold, lowers the GI and increases the amount of resistant starch. Add some healthy fats and lemon juice and you lower the GI further - so in great news for the southern hemisphere, summer is coming and its time for potato salad, pasta salad and rice salad OH YEAH!

For more interesting information on resistant starch check out this post from Precision Nutrition here:
All about resistant starch

You can read the article from Medical Journal of Australia here:
Feeding a hungry microbiome

And here's some great recipes for summer salads from the Australian Healthy Food Guide, search the site for more:
Tuna and chargrilled vegetable pasta salad
Classic potato salad
Veggie packed brown rice salad

So there's your challenge for this week, go feed your gut!!

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Recipe - easy cheesy veggie bake

Privacy dinner , recipes

I posted a picture of this meal on a Facebook group a few days ago and have have had lots of requests for the recipe for my vegetable pots in the photo. These are nothing fancy, just steamed vegetables in a basic cheese sauce. But, if someone in your family is not a lover of vegetables, or if you are getting sick of steamed vegetables, its another nice way to serve them.

Please note, this is not a really low calorie recipe as it uses milk, cheese and a little butter and flour, but it is a lovely home cooked comfort food and a delicious option. Unless you have specific health reasons not to, you shouldn't be afraid of using ingredients like this occasionally as part of a a balanced diet. Everything in moderation, remember? Just make sure you keep the rest of your meal light for balance. My meal is the one at the back left, I had it with steamed beans and carrots and 150g of baked fresh salmon. Yum!

First roughly chop your vegetables into small pieces and lightly steam your vegetables of choice. For these pots I used cauliflower (as they were on special at $2.50 for a whole head of cauli last week!) and also sweet potato which is a great low GI carb to include. My husband is not a huge sweet potato fan so his was cauliflower and a little white potato. Really, you can include any vegetables you like - broccoli, beans, zucchini, squash, peas, corn, carrots, asparagus, spinach .. it all works!

I cut the cauliflower into pieces about the size of a golf ball and sliced the sweet potato and potato into thin circular slices (I left the skin on). While you are steaming your vegetables, its time to make the cheese sauce and preheat your oven to around 200 degrees C.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan on low heat. Once its melted, add two tablespoons of flour (wholemeal flour is great- but use whatever plain flour you like to use) and stir until well mixed. You should end up with the flour mixing into the butter so you have a ball of paste a little like cookie dough. If its too runny add a little more flour.

Next add 2 cups of cold milk gently to your mixture and start whisking. This will work perfectly fine with full fat or low fat milk. It will be lumpy to start with, but as the milk warms and the butter dissolves it will become smooth. Keep whisking with the sauce on low heat (don't let it boil) for about 5-10 minutes as the sauce thickens. Don't walk away from it :) I add dried parsley, black pepper and a handful of grated parmesan cheese in the last few minutes for flavour. You will know when your sauce is ready as it starts to thicken.

**This is an amazingly easy basic white sauce that is so versatile once you've got it mastered. Instead of the cheese, add a teaspoon each of dijon and grain mustard for a beautiful sauce for corned beef. Add a heap of chopped fresh dill for a sauce to serve with fish. I certainly don't recommend you add creamy sauce to every meal, but it's a wonderful alternative from packet sauces with all their salt and added preservatives**

Back to our veggie pots. Take your sauce off the heat.

Choose small oven proof dishes and give them a spray with olive oil spray. Now layer your vegetables. I put sliced orange sweet potato on the bottom and then cauliflower on the top for two pots, and plain potato and cauliflower in the third. Pour your white sauce over the vegetables. Don't panic if it has got a little lumpy in the time you were doing the pots, it does that, just give it another quick whisk and pour it in, it will work out fine, I promise!
Top your pot with a sprinkle of grated cheese and I put one slice of sweet potato on top - just for decoration and so I could tell the different mixtures apart.

Pop it in the oven for 10 minutes or until the top is golden. By steaming your vegetables first the cooking time is really quick. Serve as a side dish with a lean protein and some more vegetables :)

Serves 3 medium sized or 4 small vegetable pots.

Recipe alternatives:
While I made this as a side dish, you could easily use this basic recipe to make a full meal, just don't forget the principles of a balanced plate. Remember it should be half fruit or vegetables, quarter lean protein, quarter low GI carbs and some good fats. Consider making a slightly larger pot with a small can of red salmon or cannellini beans, some sliced sweet potato, a large serve of broccoli or cauliflower, a handful of peas, the mustard or dill sauce and cheese on top. A tasty balanced one pot wonder!!

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Recipe - Grilled vegetable and ricotta stack

Privacy dinner , mushrooms

After making the beautiful eggplant parmigiana two days ago I had grilled a little too much eggplant and had three slices left over - cooked and sitting in the fridge. I also had half a tub of ricotta cheese opened from that recipe. I hate throwing away perfectly good food so last night decided to put my thinking cap on and do something with it.

Nutritional experts recommend we should be eating at least 5 servings of vegetables a day, yet less than 10% of Australians actually do (and the figures are similar for most Western countries). Increasing your intake of fresh vegetables is a simple thing you can do to decrease your weight, increase your health, reduce your risk for many chronic diseases and look and feel better. You will also find that if you fill up on vegetables you will be less hungry and less likely to snack on not so nutritious options! This is a very quick and easy 15 minute tasty meal and best of all, it's full of vegetables!

You will need:

Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
A range of fresh vegetables such as eggplant, sweet potato, zucchini, asparagus, green beans, capsicum (bell pepper) tomatoes, mushrooms, squash or whatever else you can find in the fridge
Fresh spinach, rocket or other salad greens to form salad base
Ricotta cheese or if you prefer a sharper flavour, marinated feta or goat's cheese would be even tastier
Balsamic glaze (this can be bought in most supermarkets. It is sweet, so a little bit goes a long way. Otherwise just use regular balsamic vinegar)
Fresh herbs

Slice your vegetables in slices around 1cm thick for thick vegetables like large mushrooms, eggplant, sweet potato, zucchini, capsicum. I steamed the sweet potato for about 2 minutes to soften it a little, but be careful not too cook too much or it will fall apart. Cut the woody ends off asparagus and top and tail beans. Cut whole tomatoes into quarters.

Heat a griddle pan and brush your vetables with olive oil. Sprinkle with black pepper and a little sea salt if you wish.

Quickly grill your vegetables, watching and turning them carefully so they don't burn. Vegetables cook fast! This won't take long. Set them aside on a plate with kitchen paper until your batches are done.

When your grilling is complete, simply make a stack with salad greens at the bottom, larger sliced vegetables such as zucchini, sweet potato and eggplant first, topped with smaller vegetables. Remember to put some nice dollops of your ricotta, feta or goats cheese in the middle. When you are done drizzle with a little balsamic glaze, black pepper, top with fresh herbs and enjoy!!

Lyndal @ Lean Green and Healthy

Health4Tips

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Zucchini and vegetable slice

Friday, May 1, 2015

Thai green curry cauliflower and coconut soup

Monday, October 20, 2014

Learning to love legumes - reblogging a great article by Sally Marchini

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Resistant starch and a healthy gut

Friday, June 13, 2014

Recipe - easy cheesy veggie bake

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Recipe - Grilled vegetable and ricotta stack

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