Feeling Chilly? Have Some Chilli

You know it’s cold when you can see your breath, and for sunny Sydney, that time has arrived! It’s well and truly winter, with mid-winter festivals and Christmas in July all over the city and up in the Blue Mountains. Time for some hot food, really hot!

When most people think hot, in food terms, chilli (chili) is what springs to mind. We’ve all seen tv docos or YouTube clips of people trying to eat the hottest chilli peppers, and suffering for their courage! Are they mad?

It’s much easier to enjoy chilli’s heat in a good dish of chilli beans or chilli beef, or in a more subtle form in a good red curry. The heat in chillis comes from a phytonutrient called capsaicin, also found in capsicums (bell peppers), which may have anti-inflammatory effects, and is being researched for possible effects on tumours. It’s also rumoured to help you burn fat faster. Whatever the truth of these claims, capsaicin certainly warms you from the inside!

Cayenne pepper also contains capsaicin, and is a great garnish sprinkled on soups, scrambled eggs, toasted cheese, or added to a stew for a hint of fire.

So, to the recipes

Vegetarian Chilli Beans

I couldn’t do a post on chilli without giving the recipe for the best chilli bean dish I’ve tried, thanks to a friend of a friend in the US. The addition of oregano, cumin, fennel and cayenne give it a Cajun flavour. Since it’s an American recipe, I’ll give the American terms first, followed by the Aussie/English ones. If you leave off the cheese or sour cream, this is a totally vegetarian/vegan dish.

1 medium yellow (brown) onion, chopped

1 medium yellow or red bell pepper (capsicum) , diced

3 cloves garlic, pressed, crushed or chopped finely

1 teasp paprika

1 tablesp chili powder, or dried chili, or 1 tablesp sambal oeleck paste

1/2 teasp dried thyme

1/2 teasp dried oregano

1/2 teasp fennel seeds

1 teasp ground cumin

generous pinch or sprinkle of cayenne pepper

1x 15 ounce (425 gram) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1x 15 ounce (425 gram) can diced tomatoes

Salt and black pepper to taste

olive oil for sautéing

Sauté the onion and capsicum gently in the oil until soft but not browned. Toss in the beans garlic, chilli and spices, sir to coat with oil. Toss in the tomatoes, bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes.

Adjust seasonings to taste and serve on rice, (white or brown), polenta, noodles, a baked potato – whatever carbohydrates you favour. Garnish with chopped cilantro (coriander) or flat leaf parsley, and you could also add a handful of tasty cheese. A dollop of sour cream goes nicely too!

Serves 2

Spicy Brown Rice and Bean Soup

Chilli heats up this minestrone-style soup, and turmeric deepens the flavour while adding extra iron.

2x 425 gram (15 ounce) can kidney beans, or any other beans or chickpeas (garbanzos), drained and rinsed

1x 425 gram (15 ounce) can of tomatoes

6 tablesp partially cooked brown rice

1 large onion, chopped

1 large carrot, sliced or cubed

2 sticks of celery, chopped

1 large potato, peeled and cubed (optional)

2 cloves of garlic, chopped (more if you like)

2 tablesp chilli powder, or dried chilli, or 1 tablesp sambal oeleck paste

1 tablesp turmeric powder

salt & pepper to taste

oil for sautéeing

1.5 litres (about 6 cups) stock or water and stock cubes

Sautee the vegetables , apart from garlic, in the oil, until onions start to soften, add the half-cooked rice. Tip in the turmeric and chilli and stir to release aromas and to coat the rice and vegetables. Add the garlic and tomatoes.

Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes , until rice is cooked. Add the beans and simmer gently for another 10 minutes, or until the soup smells and tastes right. Garnish in the same way as the chilli pot, and serve with crusty bread or thin toast

Variation: you could replace the potato with cubed pumpkin (winter squash), which goes really well with turmeric and chickpeas.

Serves 4

Buon Appetito!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn!

Now that the debilitating migraine-inducing humid summer weather is (hopefully) finally gone, and autumn has officially started with end of Daylight Saving, I can enjoy sharing some more food and nutrition ideas with you. I promised more apple recipes in my last post, but not today. Today, in salute to the end of summer, I give an easily adapted leek frittata, and pear and raspberry bread.

Leeks are available all year round, but psychologically, feel more like an autumn food to me. Others may disagree, but it's when the heat and humidity start to ebb that I remember the pleasures of leeks. Related to garlic and onions, leeks offer all the health benefits of garlic, including antioxidants and antibiotic properties, but are milder and sweeter in flavour. Leeks were favoured by the Egyptians when they were building pyramids, and the Welsh have a leek as their national symbol. Perhaps it's the Welsh in me from my grandfather that makes me love the leek!

Pear and raspberry bread has become very popular on the Sydney cafe scene, so I determined to make some myself. I don't claim this recipe as an original so much as an amalgam of the various recipes I found on the web. Mine uses frozen raspberries, as fresh ones have such a short season and are ridiculously expensive, unless you live in a raspberry growing area, or have raspberry bushes in your garden. Frozen raspberries are not as delicious as fresh picked ones still warm from the sun, but they are an adequate substitute that you can have year round. Raspberries have good levels of Vitamin C, even the frozen ones. My only gripe with the frozen ones is they go purple when baked!,

So, to the recipes:

Leek Frittata
The name 'frittata' is a bit of a misnomer, as I actually bake it in a 26x16x5cm (10x61/4x2inch) pyrex lasagne dish. It's an adaptation of a frittata recipe from the early 90s; I gave up trying to fry it, as I always made a mess! The beauty of this recipe is you can substitute the cheese with whatever you have in the fridge or feel like eating - extra tasty cheddar, Swiss, fetta, whatever takes your fancy. Ditto with the zucchinis. I often swap them with celery, a flavour that goes well with leeks. You can also substitute the herbs. I like dill, but try oregano, marjoram or tarragon. Be adventurous!

• A good slurp of olive oil
• 3 small leeks or 2 large ones, thinly sliced
• 2 medium zucchinis (courgettes), julienned (matchsticks)
• at least 1 clove of garlic , chopped fine
• 5 eggs lightly beaten
 • 11/2 cups milk, or milk and yoghurt blend
 • 4 tablesp freshly grated Parmesan cheese (NOT the packaged powdered stuff!)
 • 4 tablesp of another cheese, cubed (cubes can be as large or small as you like)
 • 2 tablesp plain (all purpose) flour with a good pinch of baking powder
 • salt and pepper to taste (white pepper is better than black in this pale dish)
• 2 teasp dried dill

Sauté the leeks in the oil, until starting to soften, cover and cook on low for 10 minutes. Add your garlic and julienned zucchini, stir, and cook covered for another 10 minutes. If substituting celery for the zucchini, sautée it with the leeks, and make sure all vegetables are very soft before you do the next step.

Tip into a large bowl and leave to cool. When cool, mix in the cheeses and herbs.
In a large bowl or glass jug, mix the flour carefully with a little of the milk to make a smooth paste. Stir in the beaten eggs. Add the rest of the milk and the seasonings, stirring well to eliminate any lumps.

Spread the cheesy vegetable mix over the base of your oiled dish, pour in the milkand eggs, and stir gently until well combined.

Bake in the middle of a 180C (350F) oven for 25-30 minutes. at the 25 minute mark, test with a skewer to see how close to cooked it is. It should be slightly runny in the middle. If so, turn the oven off for the last 5 minutes to avoid overcooking.

Leave to cool completely before you attempt to cut it; this allows it to firm up.

Sue's Gluten-free Café-style Pear & Raspberry Bread
This is yummy toasted and spread with butter or smooth ricotta, and makes a great breakfast loaf. (Toast under a griller, not in a pop-up toaster - it will stick and burn.)

• 4 medium cooking pears, peeled, cored and grated or chopped fine.
 • 1 tablesp lemon juice
• 3 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
 • 1 teasp bicarb (baking soda) and 1/2 teasp baking powder
 • 3/4 cup melted butter
 • 3 eggs
 • 2 teasp vanilla essence
 • 2 tablesp milk
 • 1/2 cup frozen raspberries (or fresh, if you can)
 • 3/4 cup sugar, preferably brown, but raw or white are good

Grate or chop pears and toss in the lemon juice to prevent them browning. make sure all the juice from the pears goes in the bowl.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla, add the melted butter and whisk until blended.

Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, add the pears and mix until combined, but do not overmix. Fold in the raspberries.

Pour batter into a greased and lined large loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake in 180C (350F) oven for an hour, checking with a skewer at the 55 minute mark. You might need to reduce the temperature a few degrees if the top is browned but the inside is not yet cooked.

Leave cake in its pan for at least 15 minutes to cool and firm before removing it. Place on a rack to cool completely before cutting.
Buon Appetito!

Less Nutritionism, More Enjoyment

Rereading In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan’s analysis of the ‘Western Diet’ and food science and technology, I’ve realised, to my dismay, that I’ve been toeing the ‘nutritionism’ line in these blogs. That is, putting more emphasis on the importance of the individual macro- and micro-nutrients in each food, rather than celebrating the whole food for its wonderful qualities of taste, colour, ripeness, seasonal variety, and sheer enjoyment.

I apologise! As a health and science journalist, I have to admit I do like to know what individual food items contain, and their possible health effects on the human body. It pleases me to know that broccoli contains sulforaphane which switches on a set of antioxidant genes and enzymes in specific immune cells, which then combat the injurious effects of free radicals that can damage cells and lead to disease. (Broccoli Boosts Immunity.)

But that doesn’t tell you that cooked properly: lightly steamed and tossed with a little olive oil or melted butter, broccoli is “surprisingly delicious”, to quote a friend, or that picked at the peak of freshness when it will contain the maximum of its good nutrients, it’s a dazzling emerald green.

Similarly, I have written articles on the health benefits of following the so-called Mediterranean Diet. I've identified the individual nutrients in each of the food groups in the Mediterranean Diet, and their effect on our health. But did I mention how well all these foods go together? How the olive oil makes vegetables glisten and improves their flavour (as well as making them more digestible)? Did I say how beautiful the colours are, and the tempting aromas? I hope at least, that the photo I chose to go with the words gave you some idea of the sensuality of the food.

The Whole is Greater than its Components

I’m grateful to Pollan for reminding me that we humans don’t eat nutrients, we eat food. It’s a basic fact that we all know, but, sadly, an emphasis on ‘healthy eating’ and ‘healthy diets’, can all too easily lead to an emphasis on individual nutrients (nutritionism), and that can lead to relying on food supplements and packaged foods that carry health claims, rather than on real food that needs to be prepared and enjoyed. Real food that can be picked from your garden, or bought at a greengrocers, old-fashioned butcher or farmers’ market.

The Joy of Food

So, a New Year’s resolution for this blog. It’s called 'Eat Well Every Day', and I did mean well, both in the sense of ‘good health’ and in the sense of enjoyably and not expensively. So there will be more emphasis on the pleasure of the food I choose to discuss with you, as well as telling you what I know about the health benefits of each food. I made some good approaches in that direction back when I posted about my love of mangoes.

So, to the recipe:

It’s summer here in Sydney (at least some days), and figs, raspberries, mangoes, are all around, perfuming the air, and being utterly delicious just to eat fresh. Well, everyone knows how to eat fresh fruit, so here’s a recipe I have my daughter-outlaw to thank for. She made a huge dish of figs wrapped in prosciutto as part of our Christmas Day feast – figs gathered from the tree outside her front door. They were great on the day, and just as delicious (and messy to eat) for breakfast on Boxing Day.

Figs in Prosciutto

I’m not claiming this as an original recipe; it’s just one of many, many versions of this traditional Italian dish. Some versions stuff the figs with Gorgonzola, blue cheese, or brie, but I prefer to enjoy the perfect combination of roasted figs and slightly crisped prosciutto.

Large ripe figs, enough for each person to have at least two
An equal number of slices of prosciutto
Good olive oil
Small amount of real Balsamic vinegar
A baking dish large enough to hold the figs in a single layer.

Wrap each fig in a slice of prosciutto. You might need to hold them together with toothpicks. Stand the figs up in the baking dish. Drizzle a little good quality Balsamic vinegar over them, then brush each prosciutto slice with olive oil.

Bake at a little over 200C (400F) for 15-20 minutes, until prosciutto has melted a little and crisped, and the figs are cooked. These are just as delicious at room temperature as eaten warm.

Buon appetito

More Hearty Winter Casseroles – Goulash

This is another of my old favourites from the 1970s. Cooked slowly in the oven for three or four hours, it transforms stewing steak or gravy beef into a savoury, slightly spicy – and in the 70s, distinctly exotic – dish redolent of paprika, tomatoes and caraway seeds. There's a potato topping to this casserole, or you can add dumplings instead to make a really filling dish

A Hungarian friend has since told me this is not an authentic goulash, so I haven’t called it Hungarian Goulash, as the 70s recipe did!

500 gm (1lb) stewing steak, cut into 4cm (1½ inch) cubes
500 gm (1lb) potatoes, sliced thinly
400 gm (12 oz) canned tomatoes & their juice
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or smashed
slurp of oil for sautéing
1 tablesp paprika, sweet or hot, (or a mixture, depending how hot you want the goulash)
1 tablesp marjoram (or oregano if no marjoram)
1 tablesp caraway seeds
1 teasp sugar
Hot stock, about 2 cups – you may not need all of this

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are soft but not browned. Remove to the casserole. Turn up the heat and brown the beef cubes briskly all over. Sprinkle with the herbs and spices and add to the casserole.

Pour the tinned tomatoes and their juices into the frying pan and stir briskly to pick up any bits of meat or onion left behind. Add sugar to balance the tomatoes’ acidity, and pour into the casserole. Stir the mixture together. Add the hot stock, gently, a little at a time, until the meat is just covered with liquid.

Cover the casserole and cook at 160C (325F) for an hour and a half. Lower the temperature to 150C (300F) and cook for another hour and a half. While the casserole is cooking, make the dumplings, which you will add before the last 30 minutes of cooking.

If you’re not doing dumplings, layer the potato slices carefully over the top of the meat, pouring a little more hot stock over them to moisten them. Leave the lid off the dish and cook for the last 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and slightly crispy.

For the dumplings:
60 gm (2 ounces) self-raising flour or plain (all-purpose) flour and ½ teasp baking powder
a 250 gm packet of suet mix
Water, about ¼ cup to mix

Mix ingredients to a stiff dough. Divide into 8 and roll into small balls. Add these to the casserole when there is still 30 minutes of cooking to go, burying them in the stock. You may need to add a little more stock if the dumplings aren’t covered.

Serve with steamed and buttered carrots and cabbage. Serves 4.

Buon Appetito!

Stocking Up for Winter

With the colder weather upon us, at least in the southern hemisphere, it’s time to think about simple warming foods like soups and stews that use fresh ingredients complemented by what you’ve got stashed in your pantry and freezer.

As well as a recipe for chicken stock, I’m going to tell you a way to preserve garlic, a tasty mushroom spread, and the easiest way to keep fresh ginger fresh

Making Stock

As discussed in my previous post, good home-made stock is a great basis for just about any type of soup, and can also add a depth of flavour to stews, casseroles and gravy. Making stock takes time, but it’s pretty easy, and the results, as well as being full of minerals and flavour, are much cheaper than the ready-made stuff. You need to allow time for the stock to cook, and time to drain it, so it’s a good idea to start the night before. You also need a deep enough stockpot to take up to six litres of liquid, plus all your meat and vegetables. It’s best if it’s a heavy based one, but I’ve managed for several years with a cheap stainless steel pot that always feels too light, but does the job.

It's possible to make beef stock, but that involves a LOT more time and some very big bones, so I very seldom make it. Chicken stock is a great all-rounder. It's also possible to make a vegetable stock, but it isn't worth the effort - it doesn't keep well, and it's easy enough to make fresh each time.

Basic Chicken Stock

2 kilos (5 lbs) of chicken necks (very little meat) or chicken drumsticks (lots of meat)
large handful of salt,
3 or 4 bay leaves
8-10 black peppercorns
Celery leaves
3 large onions, skin on, cut in half
4 carrots chopped in quarters
3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablesp white wine or vinegar (helps to dissolve the minerals in the bones)
5 litres of cold water.

Put all the ingredients in your stockpot, bring to the boil and allow to boil vigorously for 10 minutes, then turn down and simmer for an hour. If using the chicken drumsticks, now is the time to pull them out and strip of all the meat, then throw the bones back in and simmer for another 45 minutes. The chicken necks can just be simmered for the whole time. Keep an eye on the pot that you don’t lose too much liquid from evaporation.

When the simmering is done, turn off and allow to cool slightly while you put together your draining set up. You need a large colander, balanced over a pot big enough to take the approximately 3½ litres of stock. Pour the contents of the stockpot careful into the colander, scooping all the solids in as well. Cover and leave for a couple of hours, overnight is good, for every drop of goodness to drip through.

Throw all the solids into your compost bin, put the stock back on the stove and bring to the boil. Let it boil vigorously for at least five minutes to sterilise it, then pack it while hot into freezer containers. Any fat in the stock will rise to the surface and solidify in the freezer, and can be scraped off before you use your delicious and nutritious stock.

Hint: Keep a bread bag in the freezer and every time you prepare vegetables for a dish, put the trimmings in the bag. (Don’t use potatoes or potato peelings, they make the stock taste muddy.) Tops and tails of carrots, the outer skin of onions, the coarse ends of celery, and in particular celery leaves, are all good, and provide the basic aromatics for your stock. When you buy a bunch of celery, cut the leaves off immediately to stop the plant transpiring and losing its crispness. The leaves add valuable minerals – calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium – as well as flavour to your stock.

Keeping garlic in the freezer

Recently my local greengrocer had an over-supply of garlic and was offering 5 heads for $1. That’s way more garlic than I usually buy, especially in this rainy weather, when I’ve had garlic – the natural antibiotic – go mouldy! But I reasoned it should be possible to freeze garlic, and after a bit of Googling, I found several suggestions. Here’s my favourite. It takes a bit of chopping, but you have instant garlic.

Chop the garlic cloves roughly and put in the blender or food processor with some oil – about 1/3 cup to a cup of chopped garlic. This is vague I know, but it’s a matter of how much oil you think is just right. You don’t want it too runny but not too dry, as the oil helps prevent the garlic drying out. Whizz the mixture until it looks chopped enough for you. Decant into small airtight containers, label and freeze.

The neat thing about this method is that the mixture doesn’t freeze completely solid. It’s easy to scoop out as little or as much as you want without thawing the garlic. If you’re the sort of person who uses lots of garlic butter, simply replace the oil with butter. I would increase the proportion of butter to garlic, probably to 1:1. It’s all a matter of taste. Either way, you get all garlic’s health benefits – the antioxidants and polyphenols – especially allicin – that protect the heart and circulatory system and lower LDL cholesterol. To say nothing of it’s magnificent flavour!

Savoury mushroom spread

The same greengrocer had an abundance of white mushrooms, also very cheap, so I bought about 1 kilo (2lbs). As mushrooms are very light, you can imagine what a large lot that was. What I had in mind was a similar trick to preserving the garlic – some way to freeze the shrooms so they would be delicious when defrosted. I found this recipe in an old paperback on preserving. It was intended for wild fungi picked in the early morning from a dew-laden field, but it worked just as well for my cheap urban shrooms.

4 cups chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
At least 1 clove garlic, chopped fine or minced
1 tablesp olive oil
1 teasp soy sauce
1 teasp dried savory or rosemary
1/2 teasp dried thyme or oregano
1/4 teasp nutmeg
1/8 teasp black pepper
a few grinds of coarse sea salt

Sauté the onion and garlic gently in the oil. When the onion starts to soften, add the mushrooms and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer about 10 more minutes over low heat.

Decant the hot mixture into small air-tight containers, label and freeze. This is good on toast, as a sauce for steak, chops, sausages – anything that would be improved with a dollop of mushrooms. It goes well in an omelette, and is handy for boosting the flavour of soups and casseroles.

Freezer-fresh ginger
Keeping ginger in the freezer is ridiculously easy. Simply cut the ginger rhizome into chunks about the size you would normally use. Leave the skin on, and wrap each chunk in cling wrap, then drop the chunks into a ziplock bag, or a handy bread bag. You can peel and grate or chop your ginger chunk while it's still frozen. (Don't defrost it - it goes soggy and uncooperative.)

Winter Warmers

Winter has come to Sydney a week early, according to the Weather Bureau. In Australia, we don’t worry about seasons changing with the solstices, summer begins on December 1, and winter on June 1. This year, the cold, grey and very windy weather (including snow mountain ranges in southern NSW and Victoria), prompted the Bureau to shift the season back a week. Time for thick woolly jumpers (sweaters), heaters and hot water bottles. And warming winter dishes.

Super Soups

Apologies for the alliteration, I seem to have been infected with the alliterative bug! But I do think soups are super! A good home-made soup makes a filling and nourishing meal with the addition of a slice or two of toast, warm muffins or crusty bread. So, two recipes today are warming soups bungful of flavour and nutrition. But first, a note about making stock.

All soups taste better and have more minerals and other vital nutrients, if made with home-made stock. Making stock is one of those chores that fills the kitchen (and your whole place if you have a small flat like mine) with savoury steam and the sense of job worth doing. Stock keeps well in the freezer, so you have it on hand to whip up a soup or add depth of flavour to a casserole. (I’ll give a recipe for making chicken stock in my next post.)

Spicy Red Lentil Soup

Lentils are ideal for quick winter dishes like soups and dhals, as they need no soaking before cooking. Although relatively bland themselves, they soak up spices and aromatic flavours. They are high in easily digested fibre, have good amounts of protein and folate, and a surprisingly amount of antioxidants. As one of the first foods cultivated by humans, you’d have to say lentils have proved their worth!

The lentils used in this recipe are red, but the soup turns a beautiful yellow from the turmeric. It is not hot; the spices add subtle flavour, not heat. If you want it hot, add 1-2 teasp red chili powder to the spice mix.

1 cup red lentils
2 onions, chopped
1-2 sticks of celery, chopped,
garlic, chopped fine, at least 2 teasp
2 carrots chopped into cubes
large slurp of oil, preferably olive oil
1½ teasp turmeric powder
1 teasp cumin powder
salt and pepper to taste
5 cups of stock (chicken, beef or vegetable)

Heat the oil gently in a heavy bottomed saucepan and sauté all the vegetables except the garlic for 7-10 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the spices and garlic, stirring to release the flavours. Add the lentils and mix together to coat the lentils completely with the spices.

Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, lower heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Simmer gently another 5-10 minutes before serving. Superb with a dollop of yoghurt or sour cream, quite delicious without.
Serves 4

Aigo Buido (Provençal garlic soup)

This quick and aromatic soup is great for fighting off winter colds, or just for making you feel full of vigour. It’s from an old recipe I cut out of a magazine 30-odd years ago, so I don’t know who to credit for it – apart from the Provençal people themselves. Only make it if you like lots of garlic! Garlic can truly be considered a wonder food. It’s an excellent source of Vitamin C and other antioxidants, it acts as a natural antibiotic and it stimulates to the immune system.

At least 6 large garlic cloves minced or chopped very fine
6 cups of stock
1 teasp salt
½ teasp dried thyme or oregano
1 bay leaf
4 fresh sage leaves chopped
1 egg
2 tablesp chopped parsley

Bring the stock to the boil, add the garlic, herbs (except parsley) and salt and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Beat the egg in a small bowl with a tablesp of cold water. Add a ladleful of hot stock and stir together, then pour back into the hot stock. Serve at once, topped with the chopped parsley, and eat with crusty bread or dry toast croutons.
Serves 4

Buon Appetito!

Would you like some zucchinis?

When my children were young we were trying, fairly unsuccessfully, to live an alternative and self-sustaining lifestyle in a dairying and vegetable-growing area of rural Tasmania. Our farmlet was surrounded by huge vegetable paddocks of growers supplying the big frozen vegetable companies, but thanks to a silted up spring, broken pipes and no money to fix them, we could barely grow anything.

Fortunately, our friends on other small holdings in the district were both productive and generous, and we were frequently offered bounty from their gardens. Tomatoes, lettuce, pumpkin, potatoes, parsnips, swedes (a small turnip). One offer we came to dread was “Would you like some zucchinis?” “Some”, in this case, generally being an understatement. Zucchinis (courgettes) are very easy to grow, given water and sunshine, and they are very prolific, even a small patch producing a glut rather than moderation. We became very inventive in ways of using them, even attempting deep-fried zucchini chips, and thank goodness our chooks would happily eat any discarded experiment and repay us with eggs.

I was reminded of this time in our lives when a friend and I were offered a bag of cheap zucchinis at the local greengrocers. Not so much offered, as had them pressed on us, with many exclamations of affection, by the Italian greengrocer. Having avoided zucchinis for most of the 20 years since our rural experience, I actually had to look for a recipe to deal with this unexpected bounty!

One of the world's oldest vegetables

People have been eating zucchinis for thousands of years, probably because of their ease of growing and their generous cropping. Apparently they are one of the oldest families of vegetables that humans have domesticated, after their appearance in the Americas. (Zucchinis are botanically a fruit, as evidenced by the seeds insde them, but are generally considered a vegetable.) However, it was when they were taken up by the Italians, Greeks, Turks and Lebanese that zucchinis took off, becoming an important part of many European and Middle Eastern cuisines, as their mild flavour combines well with herbs, spices and other strongly flavoured ingredients.

While zucchinis are not in the top 100 healthy foods, they do provide some useful vitamins and minerals and a tiny amount of protein. As well as similar amounts of Vitamin C as potatoes, they provide some calcium, folate, potassium, manganese and vitamin A, all of which would contribute to a healthy diet if the vegetable was eaten regularly. In fact, they play a part in the healthy Mediterranean Diet. Like most vegetables, they contain no fat, no starch and are low in calories. And if you can’t grow them yourself, they are usually one of the cheapest veggies to buy.

Zucchini recipes

So, to the recipes. There are lots of delicious dishes using zucchinis together with stronger flavours, such as the colourful ratatouille. However, I decided to focus on zucchini’s own delicate flavour, and today being a grey and wintry day, chose to make a quick and easy zucchini soup. I modified the recipe I found to make it a little tangier, but resisted the urge to add any animal protein, so this is a vegetarian and vegan recipe. Omnivores may like to add sausage, bacon, and/or cheese, but the ‘naked’ soup is delicious in its own right.

Zucchini Soup

A big slurp of olive oil (about 2 tablesp)
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 or more garlic cloves, chopped
750 grams (1½ pounds/about 7) zucchini, grated
1 celery stalk, chopped fine
500 ml (2 cups) water, vegetable stock or chicken stock
½ teasp cumin
salt and white pepper to taste

In a large heavy saucepan sauté onion and celery gently in oil for about five minutes, until softening. Add the garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes. Then add cumin and fry gently for a minute.

Tip the grated zucchini into the pot and stir to mix with the other ingredients. Add the salt and pepper. Pour in the liquid and bring to the boil. (If using plain water, either add extra salt and pepper, or dissolve 2 stock cubes in the water before adding.) When the soup is boiling, cover, turn down heat and simmer for about 8 minutes.

Take the soup from the heat and blend in a food processor or with a stick blender until smooth. It should be a pale green with tiny dark green speckles. Adjust seasonings and reheat for a few minutes before serving. A dollop of sour cream or Greek-style yoghurt can be added to each bowl for extra richness.

Serves 4

If I hadn’t made the soup, I’d have baked some Zucchini Herb Muffins.

1 cup zucchini, grated
1 or more garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup of herbs, chopped fine – basil, parsley, chives, oregano, whatever you have
Salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs, lightly beaten,
2 tablesp oil
1 cup milk or milk and yoghurt mixed
2 cups plain (all purpose) flour and baking powder to make 2 cups SR

Sift flour and baking powder together. In another, larger bowl, combine all other ingredients and mix well together. Stir in flour until just mixed.

Line muffin tray with paper pans and 2/3rds fill with mixture. Bake at 180C (350F) for 15-20 minutes.

Makes 12

Buon Appetito!

Taste the Mediterranean – taste of health

There are hundreds of diets and eating plans designed to help people lose weight, gain more energy, build strength or endurance - diets where you have to count every gram of food, and diets where you can pretty much eat whatever and how much you like.

But there is one diet that isn’t so much a diet as a lifestyle, a reflection of thousands of years of a culture’s way of life, and that t is proving to be one of the best diets around for protecting and maintaining daily health.

What I’m talking about is the Mediterranean diet, eaten for thousands of years by people living in countries around the Mediterranean Sea. It is a way of eating that is high in vegetables, fruit, fish, whole grains, legumes and olive oil, with small amounts of dairy foods, but low in red meat, saturated fat and processed foods.

The Mediterranean diet is credited with preventing heart disease and high blood pressure, reducing the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, depression, preventing asthma in small children, and even protecting the skin against sun damage and wrinkles!

Why the Mediterranean Diet is So Good

The basic foodstuffs in this food tradition provide all the essential elements the human body needs to function properly:
• Fruits and vegetables: antioxidants, vitamins and riboflavin, iron, calcium and fibre
• Fish: protein and Omega-3 essential fatty acids
• Grains and legumes: protein, complex carbohydrates, iron, calcium, zinc, and B vitamins and fibre
• Dairy: protein, calcium, riboflavin, vitamins A & D
• Olive oil: polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats for healthy skin and nervous system.
• Wine is also a basic foodstuff in this eating scheme, especially red wine. Red wine contains the antioxidant polyphenol resveratrol. Perhaps equally important is that wine drunk in moderation relaxes the mood, allows us to enjoy good food and company and promotes digestion.



In Australia, we can not only enjoy the Mediterranean diet as an essential part of our eclectic multi-ethnic cuisine, thanks to all the Greek, Italian, Spanish, Croatian and Jugoslav, Turkish and Lebanese migrants who came here in the decades after the second world war. We also have a Mediterranean-style climate in much of eastern Australia, so we can grow the fruits and vegetables in our backyards and balconies, and eat them fresh picked. To say nothing of growing the grapes for home-made wine. How good is that!

As it’s summer, here’s a couple of cool dishes ideal for eating outside – a salad and a dip.

Greek Chickpea Salad

• 500 grams canned chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
• 2/3 cup spring onions, chopped into rings
• 3 medium cloves garlic, minced, pressed or finely chopped
• 2 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 3 medium ribs celery, diced about 1cm pieces
• small handful chopped fresh mint
• small handful chopped fresh parsley (flat-leafed Italian parsley is
preferable, but curly parsley will do)
• 1 small head romaine, cos or other lettuce, torn or shredded

• salt & cracked black pepper to taste
• extra virgin olive oil to taste
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or balsamic vinegar to taste
• 1/3 cup feta cheese cut into cubes (optional)

Toss together salad vegetables and beans in a large bowl. Make a dressing with the oil and vinegar or lemon juice and condiments, pour over salad and garnish with feta cubes. Serves 4


Tsatsiki: Greek Yoghurt & Cucumber Dip

Make this at least an hour before serving to allow the flavours to blend and chill. It will keep, covered, in the fridge for three or four days

Blend together
• 500 gram tub of Greek or plain unsweetened yoghurt
• 1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and cut into tiny cubes, or grated
• 3 cloves of garlic, pressed, minced or finely chopped
• salt to taste
• a few roughly chopped mint leaves (optional)

Garnish with a sprinkling of paprika and serve with pita bread, toasted Turkish bread or crusty Italian bread. Tsatsiki also makes an excellent dip to serve with crudities.

Buon Appetito!