Spicy Roasted Chickpeas - guest post by Meagan James

Hi everyone and thank you to Iwa for inviting me to post my recipe for roasted chickpeas! My name is Meagan and I am studying Naturopathy at Endeavour College of Natural Health. I am seriously addicted to chickpeas and love having them in salads or hummus, but that can start getting a bit boring after a while... This easy recipe is great for mixing up my chickpea consumption, plus it’s a good alternative to nuts and is very transportable, so something to pop in your handbag to keep the hunger pangs at bay. I like to marinate my soaked chickpeas in a mixture of olive oil and warming spices such as cumin, turmeric, coriander and cayenne, which gives it a bit of a Middle Eastern flair. You could use just about any powdered spices/aromatics you like – for example, if you used cumin, sesame seeds and lemon zest you would get a deconstructed hummus!

Before I get started on the recipe, I would like to take a moment to discuss the importance of soaking your grains and legumes.

The reasons why these foods should always be soaked before cooking are to improve their digestibility, and to neutralise substances found in grains and legumes that would inhibit the absorption of important minerals such as magnesium and zinc. The phytates and enzyme inhibitors tend to draw minerals from the body’s stores, plus the nutrients that the legume actually contains is bound up in lots of fibre and starch that is very difficult to digest. So, show your tummy some loving and make sure to soak your grains and legumes from now on! Smaller grains and legumes such as lentils will only require about 6-8 hours of soaking, while the more robust chickpea takes between 12-18 hours. I also pop in a spoonful of bi-carb soda to the soaking water, just to ensure all the phytates etc will completely break down.

And now, to the recipe!

Ingredients:

- 1/3 cup dry chickpeas, soaked for up to 18 hours

- 1 dessert spoon bi-carb soda

- 1 – 2 tsp olive oil

- 1/2 tsp turmeric 

- ½ tsp ground cumin

- ¼ tsp garlic powder

- 1/8 tsp cayenne, or to taste (can be omitted)

- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Measure out dry chickpeas in a jug, sprinkle on the bi-carb soda and pour in enough water to cover the chickpeas by roughly an inch.

2. The next day, drain and rinse the chickpeas thoroughly under running water. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a small dish. Return chickpeas to the jug and pour over the marinade. Cover and leave for at least 3 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Spread the chickpeas evenly over a baking tray – try not to let any touch – and cook for around 15 to 20 mins, or until golden. These do burn easily, so make sure you stay close by while they are cooking, and if you hear any popping, take them out immediately.  Enjoy!

Creamy Salsa Chicken with Brown Rice

I recently joined a Facebook page for slow-cooker obsessed people!  There are some good recipes on there, but I was pretty surprised that so many of the recipes call for packets or jars of this, that and everything.  One of the more popular recipes seems to be salsa chicken which calls for some chicken fillets, a jar of salsa, a packet of taco seasoning and a tub of sour cream - all mixed together and slow cooked!  As delicious as the flavour combination sounded, I thought I would make up a recipe that is a lot healthier and I can guarantee tastes a lot better too without all the nasties from those packets.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 6):
- 500g chicken thigh fillets, sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 4 large diced tomatoes or 400g can of diced tomatoes
- 1/2 red capsicum, diced
- 1 medium red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp raw or rapadura sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 cup water
- Squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice
- Sea salt, pepper and Herbamare to taste
- 200g creme fraiche or sour cream or natural yoghurt
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- Brown rice, soaked for at least 6 hours and then drained and rinsed
- Avocado slices to serve

Method:
1.  Into your slow cooker, add all the ingredients except the rice, creme fraiche and parsley.  Stir to combine.  Cook on "low" for around 5 hours, stirring every now and then.  When finished, stir through the parsley and creme fraiche.

If not using a slow cooker, preheat oven to 150 degrees, add the above ingredients to a casserole dish, stir, cover and bake for around 2 hours, stirring every now and then.  When finished, stir through parsley and creme fraiche.

2.  About half an hour before the chicken is ready, cook your brown rice as per the packet instructions (if using Thermomix, I added 1 litre of water into the TM bowl and cooked 300g of soaked/drained/rinsed brown rice for 30min/Varoma/sp4).

3.  Serve the brown rice topped with creamy salsa chicken and avocado slices on top. Yum!

Potato & Cauliflower Soup

So here's another one of my family's fave soups.  My kids are always asking for it - they think it's just potato soup and don't realise there's (plenty of) cauliflower hiding in there!  Very quick and easy to make, great dinner for busy weeknights.

Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp cooking fat
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
- 250g cauliflower, cut into florets
- 800mL Campbell's veggie stock OR chicken broth OR water with 2 tbsp Thermomix veggie stock concentrate
- Sea salt, pepper, Herbamare and fresh lemon juice to taste

Method:
1.  Into a saucepan on medium heat, add cooking fat, diced onion and crushed garlic cloves.  Cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes or until softened.

(Thermomix - add halved onion and garlic cloves.  Chop 2sec/sp7.  Add cooking fat and cook 2min/100deg/sp1)

2.  Add potato and cauliflower, stock and seasoning.  Bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for around 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

(Thermomix - add potato, cauliflower, stock and seasoning.  Ensure the level does not exceed the 2L mark.  Cook 20min/100deg/sp2.  Check that the vegetables are soft at the end of the cooking time)

3.  With a stick blender, puree the soup and check seasonings.

(Thermomix - puree by slowly turning the dial from speed 1 to speed 7 for 30 seconds.  Check seasonings)

Strawberry & Chocolate Layer Cake

I have just a wee obsession with raw cooking.  Especially raw desserts - I haven't really ventured past desserts yet!  I find it fascinating just how creative you can get with raw cooking and I really enjoy experimenting with recipes for raw desserts every now and then.  They are generally really easy to make too!  This cake is delish and the strawberry and chocolate layers are almost a mousse-like consistency.  I'm actually having a slice for brekky as I am typing up this blog - that must be my European roots coming out!

Ingredients:
Base:
- 1 cup organic dessicated coconut
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 5 fresh Medjool dates, pitted
- 2 tbsp coconut oil

Strawberry layer:
- 1 cup raw macadamias AND 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 2 hours and then drained and rinsed
- 250g punnet strawberries, hulled
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp apple juice concentrate (optional)
- 1 tsp good quality vanilla
- Squeeze of lemon or lime juice

Chocolate layer:
- Flesh of 1 large ripe avocado
- 2/3 cup cacao powder
- 1.5 cups coconut cream (refrigerate the coconut cream tin and then scoop the thick cream layer off the top - you may need to refrigerate 2 tins of coconut cream just in case - I happened to have quite a lot of cream in just the one tin)
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tsp good quality vanilla

Garnish - extra fresh strawberries

Method:
1. Grease a springform cake tin with coconut oil and set aside.

2. Put all the base ingredients into a food processor and process on high speed until the ingredients are finely chopped (10sec/sp7 in Thermomix).  Tip into the prepared sprinform tin, press down.  Refrigerate.

3.  Make the strawberry layer - put all the ingredients into the food processor and process until a smooth consistency is achieved (2min/sp8 in Thermomix).  Pour into the springform tin and smooth out the surface.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.  Wash your food processor bowl.

4.  Make the chocolate layer - put all the ingredients into the food processor and process until a smooth consistency is achieved (1min/sp5-6 in Thermomix).  Pour into the springform tin, smooth out the surface and refirgerate for 2 hours or until set.  Garnish with extra strawberries.  Serve. 

Mexican Potato Salad

Back before we went additive free, we used to buy those supermarket packets of taco seasoning, salsa and the tortillas, all full of additives and pretty much completely void of any nutritional value!  Now I couldn't think of anything worse.   Over time I have learned to make different substitutes without the nasties and with a little bit of planning and really not that much more preparation time, it is so easy.  I got the inspiration for this slow-cooked beef from my mother in law.  Somehow my beef still didn't turn out quite as good as hers but it is still pretty awesome! 

Ingredients (serves 6):
- 1/2 sweet potato, cut into chunks
- 3 white potatoes, cut into chunks

Beef:
- 1kg diced beef (I used grassfed chuck steak - you want something that is good for slow cooking)
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 400g tinned tomatoes or equivalent fresh diced tomatoes
- 2 cups water or stock (I used 2 cups of beef bone broth)
- Optional veggies (cos I love putting veggies in everything!) -  I used 1 diced carrot and 100g sliced mushrooms
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- Spices - 2 tsp salt (I used celtic), sprinkle of cracked pepper, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp onion powder

Other sides:
- Shredded lettuce
- Guacamole (I just mashed a couple of avocadoes, squeezed lemon juice and seasoned with sea salt and pepper)
- Fresh tomato salsa (I used 3 diced tomatoes, 1 tbsp finely chopped onion, sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley and a splosh of extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasoned with sea salt and cracked pepper)
- If you are OK with dairy, also grated cheese and sour cream

Method:
1.  If you have a slow cooker, put all your beef ingredients into it, give it a stir and cook on "low" setting for 8 hours, stirring every now and then.

If you don't have a slow cooker, preheat your oven to 150 degrees and add all the beef ingredients to a casserole dish.  Stir, cover and put into the oven for around 3 hours, stirring every now and then.

At the end of the cooking time, the beef should be falling apart and you can easily shred it with 2 forks.

2.  While the beef is cooking, prepare your sides and boil the potatoes until tender.

3.  Serve!