Easy Tabbouleh

BOB gave us beautiful flat leaf parsley and tomatoes this week, and with the sun shining, I thought a yummy Tabbouleh was in order. I am often asked about easy healthy lunches to take to work, well, this would be a good one. Parsley, when used in large amounts such as in tabbouleh, has incredible antioxidant properties, particularly those that promote eye health. Tomatoes are THE source of lycopene which has been shown to protect against a variety of cancers. Parsley and tomatoes are both rich in vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. Bulgar wheat is traditionally used in tabbouleh and due to minimal processing boasts a low GI and high levels of vitamins and minerals.

70g bulgur wheat
4 tomatoes seeded and chopped into small cubes
1 large bunch of parsley, chopped
1 small bunch of mint, chopped
2-3 spring onions chopped

For the dressing:
Garlic clove crushed to a paste
¼ tsp of cinnamon
¼ tsp of allspice
Lemon juice
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper

Sit the bulgur in water for about 3 min, wash and then mix with the other salad ingredients. Toss the salad in the dressing and its ready to go! So easy. If you are wheat intolerant or gluten free, you can swap the bulgur for quinoa.

I love BOB

BOB and I have become very close over the last six months. Every Monday I get excited about coming home because BOB is always there, waiting for me. In the past few weeks, we have become closer than ever and I am pleased to say, it is now official.

Bondi Organic Box, or BOB for short, is the creation of my good friend Lisa Kanani. BOB supplies the local area with boxes of beautiful organic fruit and vegetables every Monday. I love organic food but it can be prohibitively expensive. I love BOB because it makes organic fruit and veg so much more accessible by being cheaper than other organic retailers.

Lisa is off to blighty for a few months and has entrusted me with BOB in her absence. I will endeavour to write a recipe each week using BOB ingredients to help BOBBERS use up their yummy fresh produce. It’s so good to eat organically and in season and to support local farmers and businesses.... so get on with it and order your BOB now!

Innocent Fish Pie

This is a delicious fish pie that can be eaten without the fear of loading up on excessive calories. There are some beautiful fish pie recipes out there but all are considerably high in fat listing ingredients such as puff pastry, double cream and cheddar cheese. There is no doubt that these elements create a luxurious and great tasting pie, however, this type of meal should be the exception not the rule.

If you want to eat fish pie more frequently than a treat, this recipe cuts down dramatically on the saturated fat content and still tastes good. It is suitable for wheat free diets and dairy free diets where yoghurt and goats cheese is tolerated and is also nutrition rich with lots of veggies and protein. I have a weakness for truffles so I add a small amount of truffle oil but this is optional. Serve the fish pie with steamed organic broccoli dressed with organic unrefined linseed oil.

· ½ - ¾ pumpkin, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
· 2 organic eggs
· 2 large handfuls spinach
· 1 onion, finely chopped
· 1 carrot, finely chopped
· Olive oil
· 1 cup fat free organic yoghurt
· 150-200ml Bonsoy milk
· 50g of goats fetta cheese
· 1 lemon, juiced
· 1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
· 1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
· 2 tsp of truffle infused oil (optional)
· 500g of white fish (such as blue eye cod, barramundi etc) chopped into strips
· Macrobiotic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
· Nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Steam the pumpkin until soft and then mash with 50ml of soy milk, some grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.Add the eggs to a pan of boiling water and cook for 8 minutes until hard boiled. Steam the spinach in a colander above the pan for a minute and then squeeze out moisture. Remove the eggs, cool under cold water, then peel and quarter them and put in bowl with spinach and fish.

In a separate pan slowly fry the onion and carrot in a little olive oil for about 5-10 minutes, then add the yoghurt and remaining soy milk and bring to the boil for about a minute. Remove from the heat and add the goats cheese, lemon juice, mustard, parsley and truffle oil if using. Pour the vegetable sauce over the eggs, fish and spinach and mix together carefully. Put into an ovenproof and spread the pumpkin mash on top of the fish. Cook for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Mineral Rich Chicken Noodle Soup

I love roast chicken on a Sunday evening, particularly because it means an excellent chicken soup on Monday. Once the meat has been used up (save some for the soup), the chicken carcass can be boiled with a carrot, onion and some peppercorns for a few hours to make a nutrient rich broth. This concoction can be chilled making it easy to remove the fat from the top and can be frozen for later use. Always use organic chicken where possible.

Boiling bones, tendons and cartilage breaks minerals down into a form the body can easily absorb including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon and sulphur. The extracted gelatine also nourishes and heals the digestive tract and has been found to be beneficial for a long list of diseases.

I find making soup on a Monday from home made chicken stock gives the week a wholesome start, particularly if the weekend has involved excess. I vary the ingredients but always include lots of green leafy veg which are great for detoxing and stimulating the liver, seaweeds, shitake mushrooms, lean protein and wheat free soba noodles/beancurd noodles. It’s quick and easy to make and leaves me feeling satisfied and cleansed afterwards. The below is enough for two people.

· 600 ml of chicken stock
· Clove of garlic chopped
· Tsp of chopped ginger
· Chopped fresh chilli
· 5 shitake mushrooms soaked for 30 mins in hot water and chopped. Some of the soaking water can be added to the chicken stock
· 2/3 strands of wakame seaweed soaked for 10 mins in hot water
· Shredded cooked chicken or fish
· Tbsp of Tamari sauce
· Tbsp of Mirin
· Tsp of agave nectar
· Bok choy/spinach/chinese broccoli
· 100g of buckwheat soba noodles
· Tbsp of organic shiro miso (optional) mixed with small amount of hot water
· Drizzle of organic sesame oil
· Squeeze of lime

Simmer the chicken stock with the garlic, ginger, chilli and shitake mushrooms for fifteen minutes. Then add the seaweed and the chicken. Meanwhile cook the soba noodles and then drain in cold water to stop them overcooking and divide between two bowls. Add the tamari, mirin and agave nectar and then add the vegetables. Cook for a further couple of minutes being careful not to overcook the greens and then turn off the heat. Stir in the miso and ladle the soup over the noodles. Drizzle with sesame oil and a squeeze of lime and eat with chopsticks and a spoon. Yum.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

I don’t know whether it’s the word ‘bread’ but there is a misconception that banana bread is a healthy option for breakfast. In actual fact, you might as well eat cake to start off your day. With lots of sugar and fat and being pretty much devoid of protein and good fibre, banana bread should be seen as a treat, not part of the everyday diet. Yes, the sugar will give a boost in the morning but an hour or so later, the high will wear off and you will be left feeling tired and reaching for coffee and snacks (see my July post on breakfast). However some banana breads are better than others such as those made with very ripe bananas instead of sugar, yoghurt in the place of butter and healthy alternatives to white flour.

The carbohydrate in an unripe banana is mostly in the form of starch, but in a ripe banana, the starch is converted to glucose giving it a much sweeter taste. Therefore, very ripe bananas, the black ones that look like they are ready for the bin, can be used to sweeten banana bread instead of copious amounts of sugar. These are the ones I have used in this recipe so I only need to add a small amount of honey to the mix. But don’t forget, although you are eating natural sugar, it’s still sugar! This recipe also substitutes yoghurt and a small amount of olive oil for butter which reduces the saturated fat content found in many banana breads.

Finally, there are few banana breads out there that cater for wheat free or gluten free diets. I have used a mixture of buckwheat flour and coconut flour, neither of which contain any wheat or gluten. Coconut flour has the highest fibre content of any flour with a staggering 38.5g of fibre per 100g and has a low concentration of digestible carbohydrates. Clinical studies have found that coconut flour lowers the GI of foods when used in baking.


1¼ cup organic buckwheat flour
¾ cup organic coconut flour
1 tsp low allergy baking powder
¼ tsp sea salt
½ cup walnuts, chopped
1½ cups ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup low fat natural yoghurt
2 tbsp honey
2 large eggs
¼ cup olive oil

Heat oven to 180 deg C, mix all dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together and then fold carefully into dry ingredients until combined. Pour into a greased loaf tin and put in the oven for 50 minutes until golden brown. Can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Healthier crumble with apple, rhubarb and ginger

During my quest to reduce the amount of alcohol in my diet, I have found myself craving sweet carbohydrate substitutes, particularly after eating dinner. A healthier alternative to eating chocolate, lollies or fatty desserts is fruit. Fruit can be made into great desserts, crumble being one of the most popular. Unfortunately, most crumbles are full of saturated fat, sugar and simple carbohydrates, not a combination that should be eaten too often. However, crumble can be a dessert that is full of fibre, high in complex carbs and essential fatty acids and lower in sugar. And it can be wheat free. If you need to sweeten the fruit, you can use agave nectar instead of sugar. Agave nectar is 90% fructose giving it a low glycaemic index. Cinnamon also helps to sweeten fruit without adding calories and it also balances blood sugar levels – important for those with sugar cravings. Ginger gives the fruit a nice twist and has countless health benefits. Instead of using flour, butter and sugar for the crumble, I use oats, nuts, honey and olive oil/butter. This increases the fibre and essential fatty acid content and lowers the GI, unusual qualities in a dessert. It’s a dessert that is healthy enough to be eaten as a snack too. Serve with goats yoghurt.

· Bunch of rhubarb, washed and chopped into 2 inch lengths
· 4 or 5 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
· 2 tsp of organic agave nectar
· 2 inch stick of ginger grated
· ½ tsp of cinnamon

For crumble topping

· 1 cup organic rolled oats
· ½ cup of puffed brown rice
· ½ cup of almonds, cashews and seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, poppy) crushed
· 2 tbsp of olive oil or butter
· 1 tbsp of honey

Put the fruit, agave nectar, ginger and cinnamon in a saucepan with a small amount of water, cover and cook until soft. Meanwhile, mix together crumble ingredients. Place stewed fruit into an ovenproof dish and cover with crumble mixture. Bake in the oven at 180oC until golden.

Quick Quinoa Risotto

I love risotto but eat it fairly infrequently because it’s high in simple carbohydrates and often low in protein content. I think of risotto as a treat rather than a staple of my everyday diet. Of course you can make a healthier risotto with brown rice, however, whether you are using white arborio or brown rice, risotto needs lots of time, love and attention. I’m often too busy to offer these cooking qualities in the week so instead I opt for a more protein rich, lower fat and less time consuming quinoa risotto.

Quinoa has a low glycaemic index and is high in fibre and protein (approx 15%). Unusually for a plant, it contains a balanced set of amino acids making it a complete protein and thus a perfect food source for vegetarians.

You can increase the protein content of this meal by serving alongside a piece of poached salmon, trout, white fish or chicken. This protein rich, low fat, complex carbohydrate meal is great for week nights when you are short of time and ingredients. Feel free to substitute for any veggies you have available. I don’t see why this risotto can’t be part of everyday life. Serves around 4 as a side.

· 1 bulb of fennel sliced
· Handful of mushrooms sliced
· Couple of handfuls of spinach
· 2 cloves of garlic chopped
· Fresh chilli – chopped
· 1-2 cups of quinoa
· Chicken stock
· ½ lemon juiced
· 1 tbsp Olive oil
· Salt and pepper
· Parsley

· Optional: drizzle of unrefined brown flaxseed oil to serve

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil and fry garlic and chilli for 1 minute. Add fennel, coat with the oil and sauté for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for further 5-10 mins. Add quinoa and mix well. Add a couple of cups of chicken stock and simmer. Stir occasionally and if it becomes dry, add more chicken stock. The quinoa should cook in about 15 minutes and the germ ring will become visible. A few minutes before serving, stir the spinach through the quinoa until cooked. Add lemon juice and seasoning to taste and top with chopped fresh parsley and a drizzle of flaxseed oil.