Recipe: Dhal

Dhal is an economical and nutritious lentil-based 'stew'. I've adapted this recipe from the DK book Yoga: Mind and Body.

Dhal

Serves 4

Dried green lentils
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes, quartered
1 piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, grated
1 or 2 green birdseye chillis, chopped
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
4 cloves
sunflower oil
salt

Boil the lentils in water for 25-30 mins, until tender. Meanwhile, fry the garlic, onions, ginger and chilli in a pan with a small amount of sunflower oil, until the onion is soft. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, cloves and salt (to taste) to the pan. Cook for a few minutes (the mustard seeds will start to pop). Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir well.

Meanwhile, drain the lentils. Add to the tomato, onion and spice mixture and mix well. Cook for a few minutes to combine the flavours. Add a spot of water to the pan if the mixture is too dry.

Serve with brown basmati rice.#

#N.B. The combination of rice and lentils makes for a nutritionally complete meal.

Recipe: Bacon and sweetcorn risotto

Slightly strange-sounding combo, but really very tasty. May not be suitable for people just starting out on the diet because smoked bacon is often prohibited, at least to begin with.

Bacon and Sweetcorn Risotto
(Serves 1)

Brown risotto (arborio) rice
2 rashers of good quality smoked back bacon (make sure that the meat hasn't been coated in sugar!)
1 shallot
A cup of sweetcorn kernels (I used frozen)
Chopped fresh parsley
1/2 litre stock (I used Marigold yeast-free stock powder)

Cut the bacon into slices and fry until crispy in a saucepan (no need to add additional oil). Finely chop the shallot and add to the bacon. Add sufficient rice (about half a mug-full) and stir. Coat well in the oil from the bacon. Add a small quantity of stock, stir and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed. Continue to add stock in small quantities, until rice is al dente and creamy. Add the sweetcorn and parsley and heat through. Serve!

Convenience food

Apologies for my long absence. It's nearly halfway through the month already and I haven't yet posted anything for January. Part of the problem is that I'm still at home in Suffolk on an extended Christmas holiday. I'm being cooked for and not getting the opportunity to experiment with anti-candida recipes as much as I would normally. The other factor in my elusiveness is my limited access to the Internet. And when I do get a chance to get online, I'm having to rely on a painfully slow dial-up connection. The other stuff I blog for my Department tends to take priority, meaning 'The Cardboard Diet' gets bumped down the 'to do' list. Oh well, I'll do my best to rectify the situation in the coming days and weeks - promise!

So, until I get a chance to get back in the kitchen, here's the low down on a few anti-candida friendly convenience foods I've recently found in the supermarkets.

Tinned Soup

Sainsburys' So Organic Spicy Lentil and Mixed Pepper Soup - yet to try this. Sounds good, but I wasn't very impressed with the other soups in their So Organic range I've previously tried. But, I'm prepared to give it a go.

Heinz Special Root Vegetable and Barley Broth - now, I was AMAZED to find this. Not necessarily because it is an okay Heinz soup, but because - with it being a Heinz soup - it should be available from most shops, helping to make life that little bit easier. I tried it at lunchtime. It's really not bad. It includes big chunks of parsnip and swede and slices of carrot which make it look fairly 'home made'. Plus, the addition of the barley is lovely. Little on the gloopy side for my taste, but beggers can't be choosers as they say.

Rice

Have been meaning to blog this for ages. Uncle Ben's produce a microwavable wholemeal rice, with nothing in it except rice, vegetable oil and salt. A great store cupboard standby. The whole pack just takes a couple of mins at full blast in the microwave to heat through. It's hard to believe it would be as good as freshly cooked rice, but seriously, it is.

Tinned tomatoes

Equally I keep forgetting to mention Sainsburys' So Organic Chopped Tomatoes, which are thankfully free of citric acid and any other additive nasties. My only criticism is that you do tend to get a lot of 'end' pieces in these tins (y'know - the bit where the stalk used to be), but if you're not fussy, that shouldn't be a problem. And if you are as fussy as me, you can always fish the offending chunks out of the tin before you use them!

Recipe: Lemon Pulao Rice

I had a few friends round for dinner last night and made a really very good lemon-flavoured pulao rice, to accompany my speciality halloumi kebabs and a green salad.

N.B. The recipe was adapted from the Veetee website.

Lemon Pulao Rice

Serves four very hungry students!

2 mugs of brown basmati rice (I get mine from 'Sainsburys')
4 mugs of boiling water
Vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida powder
1/2 ground turmeric
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 lemon
fresh coriander leaves
salt and pepper to taste.

Heat oil in large saucepan. Add cumin and mustard seeds. Cook in the oil for a few moments until the mustard seeds start to pop. Add asafoetida powder, turmeric, cayenne pepper and basmati rice. Stir for a few moments, coating the rice in the oil and spices. Add water. Bring to the boil, stir once, put on the lid and simmer until the water has been absorbed.

Chop up some coriander and stir into the rice, cut a few slices of lemon and add the juice to the rice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon slices and serve immediately.