Yellow Courgette Spaghetti and Is Raw Food That Good for Everyone?

Take one courgette....

 

Make it into spaghetti with a julienne peeler....

Add runner bean and tomato salad....

Grate some Gran Padano on top (god I love this cheese)...

Et voila, a nearly raw dish!

When I was reading about different people's recipes involving courgette spaghetti, I was surprised that no one cooked it. I mean obviously the raw foodies weren't going to, but...no one? And they were all saying how it was JUST LIKE NOODLES, just as good if not better! YAY!

Well, I didn't personally agree. It felt healthy, and crunchy crispy vegetabley, but not that satisfying. And most importantly, it wasn't bendy enough to twizzle around a fork in a satisfying way!

So I remade this recipe, or one similar, but a cooked version:

I fried up an onion.
I added some runner beans and cooked them for a couple of minutes.
I added some fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse. Big ugly ones.
I let this accept the fact it was going to soon be a pasta sauce (only about 5-7 minutes).
I made another courgette into spaghetti with my julienne peeler.
I added the spaghetti on top of the sauce, put a lid on and let it steam for a few minutes.
I then mixed it up a bit, topped it with some medallions of mozzarella and grilled it.

It was divine. Although not as photogenic. I felt full, and like I'd gained some energy.

I'm coming to a place of reevaluation. Recently I've been getting into raw and unprocessed foods, and getting very excited about them, and reading up on the wonderful natural benefits foods contain. I've been having Earthsprout's Greenylicious Smoothie for breakfast, tasty salads for lunch and eating Sarah B's Life Changing Loaf of Bread in my lunches. I've been cutting out white flour and sugar as much as I can and trying to eat nuts and pulses instead of meat.

And I've lost weight. Which I know a lot of people would be happy with but I'm pretty skinny and I didn't want to and it doesn't look good. The thing about eating like this is that it reduces my appetite, but also doesn't make me feel particularly satisfied (but the thoughts of all the vitamins, minerals, omega 3s etc are very satisfying!). And it's made me remember what I knew before I got so into it - that different diets are right for different bodies.

Some people look voluptuous and healthy on a vegan diet. Some people look gaunt and awful on a vegan diet and their bodies could use some animal protein. Some people feel much better on raw food. I think I need a decent amount of cooked food and I need good amounts of CAARBS! With a decent helping of some sort of protein and fat to keep my blood sugar on an even keel. The way I feel after a big load of (gluten free) spaghetti with lentil Bolognese is amazing! I have so much energy and my brain works faster. They have the opposite effect on lots of people - a friend of mine says lots of them make him feel sleepy and lethargic.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on raw food and soaking nuts and making smoothies - I've just accepted that it can't be the only stuff I eat.

...Although I suppose if in decades to come I need to shed some pounds, I'll know what to do!

Colourful vegetables

Does it fade, this mild but genuine shock and amazement, when you've grown vegetables for many years?

 

Do you cease to look wondrously at the beautiful things that appear amongst the plants you put in the ground, that you can just take, like a child who doesn't understand how the world works?



I intend to find out.

Bonkers.

Vegetable of the Week: The King Oyster Mushroom

The King Oyster Mushroom is like the oyster mushroom's brother who has taken lots of steroids and now works as a bouncer.

I have to admit this is a bit of a sad speciment but he still tasted fantastic. I found a recipe for vegetarian bacon that was just king oyster mushroom sawn into planks, saturated with smoked paprika and salt and fried. Didn't have any smoked paprika so I used normal and it was tasty. But nothing like bacon.

I also tried grating them into ommelettes and sauces, which was very good too. In a subtle, grated way.

Vegetable of the Week - The Dudhi

This week's vegetable of the week is the dudhi, or bottle gourd, which is a very satisfying name to say. Bottle gourd. Try it.

 

I'm abandoning the 'eat it first, research it later' idea, as some things like potatoes you shouldn't eat raw, and I don't want to precipitate some sort of digestive disaster. Also, to give the candidates a fair shot at a good review, I should prepare them in a recommended way. Broccoli is excellent in a stir fry but terrible in risottos. It would be sad to review risottoed broccoli and disuade anyone from such a very enjoyable vegetable.

Therefore, I found the dudhi and discovered it is a member of the squash family, and all the recipes for it were curries. I chose Lauki Chana Daal Subzi, or 'Bottle gourd and lentil curry.' From here:

http://maayeka.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/lauki-chana-daal-subzi-bottle-gourd-and.html

On chopping, it resembles a courgette inside. After chopping, the pieces oozed sappy watery stuff.

Ingredients....

Ta da!! I really liked it. The dudhi is a bit firmer than courgette and takes up the spices nicely. This is apparently an ayurvedic recipe and is supposed to make lots of things better. It certainly feels very nourishing and healthy. Famie and I enjoyed it. I decided to get its goodness into Zappa so I took some over to his work. He said, 'I think we look for different things in a lunch, Em.'
I said, 'Really?'
He said, 'Yeah, I go more for 'yum yum'!'

Well, I'm just glad I got some good food into him instead of a chicken mayo and bacon baguette from the sandwich van. I'm definitely making this again.

Vegetable of the Week: Chayote

This week's exotic piece of produce is in fact a fruit: the chayote.

 

First impressions: It looks like a bramley that's tried to eat itself. Slightly less firm than an apple though, more like an old apple that you know is going to taste rubbish but you feel guilty for not eating sooner so you should probably at least try and slog through it.

Cut up, it looks appley too but with only a hint of an effort to produce pips. Ghost pips. Very nice and crispy firm flesh.

Taste - .....like the smell of when someone's been strimming. Strong hint of grass and other stemminess. Not strong flavour. Refreshing.

Conclusions: It's alright. I like the way it reminds me of summer. It feels virtuous and healthy. A whole one's a bit much. It's not as moreish as other fruits as it's not very sweet.

Morrison's Magical Fruit and Veg Section

I went to Morrison's the other day and was amazed. No, I am sadly not being sponsored. They'd done a refit and whilst 90% of it looked the same to me, the fruit and veg bit was ridiculous! New 'swamp coolers' breathed swirling marshy mists over central tables of immaculate produce, miniature lawns of herbs such as sage and mint were neatly but abundantly displayed. But the most striking thing was how much completely weird things they were stocking - prickly pears, spherical courgettes the size and shape of baseballs, dragon fruit, every kind of posh mushroom you could possibly hope to find in San Francisco....I was gobsmacked.

I can't be bothered to go and persuade a supermarket manager to let me take pictures of his territory, or have lots of shoppers stare at me while I do so, in fact, leaving the house is looking doubtful today. So instead I have searched the interweb for evidence and it turns out, it's not just Waterlooville where the aliens have landed. Here are some stolen pictures.

 

 

Love that there's a Wrexham.com.

 

I found this novelty interesting for several reasons. Firstly, I'd never heard of half the stuff, or at least seen it. Secondly, it's a recession, surely this is the worst time to breed dogs and/or open delicatessen vegetable sections? Thirdly, it's Morrisons.....not that I'm a snob but isn't Morrison's thing 'cheap and British'?

 

But as I wandered the brightly coloured aisles of exotic potential vitamins I started to get how it could work. I was actually quite excited by the new things. I wanted to buy one of everything and then google them when I got home to find out what virtuous exciting recipes I could make. I was getting inspired.

 

However, that would be excessive. Therefore, I am going to slowly work my way through the Morrison's Incredible Intergalactic Inglenook of Plant Produce, and post reviews.

 

So. Time for this week's

VEGETABLE OF THE WEEK

 

The Karela

 

Review: I chose this because it was up there with the weirdest-looking thing I could find. The helpful label on the veg table said 'Good in stir fries!'

 

I cut the end off and cut it up. The outside is firm and squeaky. The inside is soft and pithy. I fried it in butter along with some mushrooms.

 

It was AWFUL. It was SO BITTER! And chewy. Blergh. I've just googled it and it's called 'Bitter Melon.' It is sometimes used instead of hops in Chinese and Okinawan beers.

 

I quite like the surprise of eat first, google after. I think I will continue this format.

 

Stay tuned for the next VEGETABLE OF THE WEEK.