Another way to enjoy your greens

Swiss chard and spinaches are greens that I eat only sporadically, as they contain oxalic acid (that binds with calcium and eliminates it from the body). At the market the swiss chard looked delicious so this was a good occasion to break the rule.

Bright green rolls:

-1 cup cannellini beans

-300 grm swiss chard 

-1 grated carrot

-1 clove of garlic

- shoyu or tamari

The nigh before- soak 1  cup of cannellini beans. The day after boil them till tender.

Bring a large stockpot of water to the boil, when the water boils drop the chard and cover the pot, cook till bright green, don't over boil. Drain the leaves and dry them. Save the larger leaves  and chop up finely the smaller leaves.

Heat up 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, and a crushed garlic till golden brown, add 1 crunched dried chillie (or flakes). Stir in the grated carrots and the finely chopped chard  and stir fry till tender but still crunchy. Add the beans and stir. Add few drops of shoyu and cook for another minute.

Spoon over the leaves that were left aside and roll over.

On a sunny Saturday

The best thing about living somewhere where the weather is almost always depressing is that it comes as surprise when it isn’t. Everything seems easier when it’s sunny!
On Friday night I didn’t sleep very much I was kept awake for most of the night by teenagers that were dancing and stomping and shouting on the flat above. Mummy was probably away and they are only sixteen so I didn’t feel like arguing and just accepted that on Saturday I would have been shattered. And shattered I was when the delivery company delivered my new bed!
So it was a sunny morning and I was finally saying bye bye to my futon.
Did it get even better? Yes my lovely friends put the bed together without me having to do anything :D
So as a reward for their hard wok I put together a little lunch, something maybe too summery but the day was glorious and all I fancied was salad!

So I got inspiration from the millet tostadas from Susan Marque:

The tostadas are really easy:

1 cup millet
3 cup water
1 pinch of salt

cook the millet in the water till it has absorbed it all, pour it in a baking dish and level it so that is all even, let it cool down.
Cut in squares and fry in a little olive oil. The millet would hold together even without frying it as long as you don't dry it out too much if you slightly overcook it it becomes really unpleasant though.. it's a fine line.

I served it with:
Jerusalem artichokes: peel, slice and bake with 2 tbsp of Shoyu and ½ cup of water

Adzuki beans, soaked overnight, simply boiled with added parsley

Sliced avocados (I know tropical, bad macrobiotic rating!)

Pressed carrots:
Finely grate three carrots, add a pinch of salt and a finely sliced onion. Put a dish on top and a weight and leave for a few hours. Add cumin raisins and lemon juice.

In the beautiful daylight those colourful plates were so joyous!

The recycled house and recycled burgers

Last weekend I had a great day out visiting one of the artist’s open houses at the Dulwich festival.
The house was beautifully and eclectically furnished with items found in skips, charity shops, carboot sales, so virtually a house made gorgeous without any environmental impact.
I had a tour of the house, the couple that made it are these very inspiring people, that created the most elegant of places, they are planning to live in a caravan for some months travelling around Europe with their two daughters, but for now they enjoyed this paradise, just few stops away from London Bridge.
I loved how everything was made of old bits including the shed in the garden and the girls’ room.

info on the festival

Inspired by this visit I put together everything that was in the fridge to make these tasty recycled burgers:
1 cup of cooked mung beans
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 celery
1 onion
Cumin
Salt
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp buckwheat flour

Quickly sautéed the diced vegetables in a lightly oiled wok pan (you can use a little brush to make sure you use just enough)
Cook the vegetables till they are cooked but still crunchy.
Make patties with all the ingredient and use a little flour to prevent them sticking.
Bake on a lightly greased oven dish for 20 minutes or until they are golden on both sides.

I served them with a tahini dressing (2 tbsp water 1 tahini mixed thoroughly till smooth) and pressed salads with radish and cucumber with greated ginger.