Super Salad Sandwich

Last Thursday, for the Wellbeing Week Festival at uni, a couple of people from Jamie's Ministry of Food came to do some cooking demonstrations and tasting.  Unfortunately, I was busy doing my show at RamAir while they were doing the demonstration, but I picked up a Get Food Smart recipe booklet from their table in Student Central during a song break.  This top-ranking recipe is for a sandwich full of colourful vegetables and is perfect for lunch any time of the year and especially with friends.  Next week, I'll be starting with ideas for Christmas dining and will also be giving a few top 5s, so look out for those!

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 radishes, halved
5cm piece of cucumber, halved lengthways
1/2 small carrot, halved lengthways
2 cauliflower florets
1/2 small red pepper
1/2 small apple
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 sprigs of soft herbs, such as dill, flat-leaf parsley or basil, or 2 sprigs of fresh mint, leaves picked
1/2 punnet salad cress or sprouting herbs
a handful of peas
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
4 seeded wholegrain rolls
2 tablespoons hummus

Instructions

1. Using a table knife, cut each radish half into three pieces on a chopping board and place them in a large bowl.
2. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the watery seeds from the cucumber, and discard them, then slice each cucumber half into four pieces and add to the bowl.
3. Cut the carrot into 8 even-sized pieces, then snap apart the cauliflower florets into bite-sized chunks and place both veggies into the bowl with the others.
4. Pull out the pepper's stalk and scoop out the seeds and pith with a teaspoon, discarding all.  Cut the pepper into four long slices, then cut each slice into four segments and add to the bowl.
5. Place the apple half, flat-side down, on the board.  Cut into six even pieces, discarding the core.  Add to the bowl.
6. Place a clean tea towel on the chopping board and pile the veg and apple in the middle.  Fold over each corner of the towel so your ingredients are wrapped up like a parcel.  Squash with a rolling pin to break the ingredients into little pieces.
7. Measure the vinegar and olive oil into a large bowl and blend into a dressing.
8. Tear the herb leaves into small pieces (if using dill, snip it with scissors), adding them to the bowl as you go.  Snip the cress or sprouting herbs into the bowl, then add the peas, seeds, squashed veg and apple.  Using your fingers, carefully toss all the ingredients with the dressing until they're nicely coated.
9. Halve each roll horizontally and spread the insides of each one with hummus.  Divide the vegetable mixture between the base of each roll.  Place the lids on top, press down lightly, and enjoy!

Raw Granola with Raw Banana and Cashew Yoghurt

Last Thursday was the Health and Wellbeing fayre at uni, marking the launch of a new initiative to promote and sustain health and wellbeing amongst students and staff at the university through food, exercise, relaxation, and services such as the university's counselling service, the mental health charity Mind and NHS services.  There were various stalls with leaflets or, in the case of the Sustrans stall, a bicycle fitted with a blender which you could ride and make your own berry smoothie (which will next be available at uni on Wednesday 25th February for the Food Festival), as well as a quiz which you could complete with the chance of winning various prizes including month-long gym memberships.  At the stall at which you could register your attendance and maybe also receive a goodie bag (which contained a stress ball in the shape of a lemon, lip balm, hand sanitiser, a pedometer, a hand warmer and a few leaflets), you were encouraged to write on a post-it what you would like to see this initiative do for the university.  Being an advocate of food and looking after yourself, I took three post-its and wrote:

1. Introduce compulsory timetabled sessions on yoga/relaxation for all students.
2. Encourage students to eat breakfast everyday.
3. Encourage students to get enough sleep each night.

That second option is what I have a post on for this week.  Breakfast.  The most important meal of the day, or so they say.  The meal that should not be skipped in favour of sneaking a bit more sleep in before a lecture.  One of my friends was talking about wanting some granola a few days ago, so I felt inspired to look up a recipe for granola.  I found one in the January 2015 of the Asda magazine, but I've adapted it a lot by making it into a raw version by not cooking the granola mix and topping it with raw banana and cashew yoghurt, in accordance with this recipe for raw banana and cashew yoghurt from Choosing Raw.

Ingredients (to make 4 small servings)

1 cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours or more, then drained

2 large bananas

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2/3 cup tap water or coconut water

1 pinch sea salt

200g rolled oats

raisins, to serve

blueberries, to serve

 

Instructions

1. For the yoghurt, blend all the ingredients together until the mixture reaches a smooth consistency.
2. Mix together the rolled oats and raisins.
3. Scoop some of the yoghurt into the bottom of each glass.  On top of this, add a layer of the oat and raisin mixture.  Add another layer of the yoghurt to the glass.  At the very top, add another layer of the granola mix.
4. Add some blueberries to serve.