kohlrabi tabuleh

1 cup kohlrabi diced
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup shredded beets
1 cup corn
1/2 cup beans
2 cups cabbage sliced
1/4 cup peas
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp seeds

I used a beet/banana dressing that I made earlier, but any would do. It's not even necessary as it tastes good on it's own.

Cooking Experiment with some new foods

Last week we were running low on some staples like greens and other fresh veggies, and I experimented with the following that turned out pretty good.  I had a few things in the fridge that needed to be used up...

I steamed some butternut squash, sweet potato, a pear and a granny smith apple to see what I can come up with.

I also had some new items from the indian store on hand that I wanted to experiment with turmeric  tindora, pearl onions , dosakai, Poi Leaves, frozen green Chana  

First thing I made is the Mishmash turnip carrot salad, then I made a Sweet Tindora Soup and 

Wilted Spinach and Tomatoes

I also made some dressings and dips that came out tasty Pear Cashew Dip

and I made the same thing with the steamed apple which turned out good as well. 

This next one was inspired by a cooking demo I saw recently at Lansdale Live Food & Music Festival sponsored by Arnolds and I will call it Coconut Chia Dip

Last but not least I made Green Chickpeas and Cabbage with Fruit today for lunch, and I though it was excellent.

The only thing I left out was the Poi Leaves which I just stirfried with some other veggies one day and it was just as good as any other leafy green. So thats one more dark leafy green I can add for a variety next time I am shopping at the market.

Coconut Chia Dip

Coconut chia Dip

This can also be used as a topping for a cake or dip for fruit. I also tried it with veggies and liked it.

1 meat of young coconut

1/2 cup coconut water

flax seeds

chia seeds

4 dates

3-4 frozen organic strawberries

1 tsp cocoa powder

Directions: Blend or process until smooth 

Pear Cashew Dip

Pear Cashew Dip

1 steamed pear

1/8 cup cashews

1/4 cup soy milk

2 tbsp yeast flakes

Directions: Blend or process until smooth.

Wilted Spinach and Tomatoes

Wilted Spinach and Tomatoes

3 pearl onions halved

2-3 tbsp soup broth (I used Sweet Tindora Soup)

2-3 tbsp tomato sauce

6oz chopped spinach

1/2 avocado diced (didn't use but would be good here)

seeds (used flax)

nuts (used pine and filberts)

Directions: Cut up the onions and spinach.  Wait 10 min to cook and warm up the pan. Sautee all the ingredients with closed lid cook until spinach wilts top with flax seeds and pine nuts.  Mix in avocado and serve

Sweet Tindora Soup

Butternut - Tindora Soup

This soup didn't have much tindora in it, since its new for us and I didn't buy alot of it. It's my first experiment using it.

1/2 butternut squash, 

2 sweet potato, 

1 cup beans, cooked

celery sliced, 

tindora sliced, 

brown rice, 

carrots, 

dried parsley

baby spinach

veggiezest

cashews

Directions

Since I steamed the squash and  sweet potato, and had beans on hand I cooked the rest of the ingredients in water for about 30 min and blended it with 1/4 the squash cashews and 1 sweet potato.  I cubed the rest of the potato and squash and added it to the soup.  Cooked for about 10 min more.  Note: you may need to cook the brown rice a bit longer (20 min) before adding the rest of the ingredients.  The rice I have cooks quickly (20 min) for some reason so it worked for me.  Could season with more cashews and/or seasonings to taste.

Mishmash turnip carrot salad

Mishmash turnip carrot salad 

Note: The quantities are approximate here since I didn't measure

  grated 1 turnip

, grated 1 carrot

, 1/2 cup of beans

, 2 tbsp yeast flakes

, 1 tsp table tasty from bensons 

, 1/4 cup healthy salsa (home made)

, 1 tbsp flax seeds

, 1 cup steamed butternut squash

, 1 steamed sweet potato

, 1/2 cup frozen corn

Directions steam and grate veggies then Mix together.  Adjust any seasonings to taste based on what you have on hand

Green Chickpeas and Cabbage with Fruit

Today was an experimental menu based on one of our favorite dishes cabage with apples.  I really liked it, so maybe you will too.

Last time I was at the store I picked up some frozen green Chana , not really knowing what it was, but pleasantly surprised that - young green chickpeas!  
I could even eat them raw they are so soft.
I also picked up fresh turmeric  which is called Turmeric rhizome which has some good medicinal properties and pearl onions which are a pain to peel

Looking at some recipes online I just decided to make one up from what I had on hand. I figured that it needed some cruciferous greens (Cabbage) and something sweet.  I never cooked turmeric rhizome before, but I knew that it doesn't have a strong flavor from reading about it.  I decided to peel it like ginger with the back of a knife. The rest is history

Green Chickpeas and Cabbage with Fruit

1 cup frozen Green Garbanzo (Hare Chana)
1/2 head cabbage diced
3 -4  pearl onions halved
1 small Turmeric rhizome peeled and diced

Handful of raisins (used Hunza and Thompson)
pinch ground ginger
pinch Indian curry
Fruit (I used  1 mango cubed 1 asian pear cubed)

1 Zucchini diced
Seeds( I used 1-2 tsp hemp seeds and sunflower seeds)
Nuts? Sure why not
Avocado? Sure it would work as well

Here is how I made it
Prep the cabbage, onions, and the fruit. Rinse the Chanas in water
Warm up the pan with some water
Throw in  Chanas, cabbage, onions, mango, riaisins and spices.and cover to water saute for about 5 minutes (if you like your cabbage softer - more)  Add zucchini

If you have a soft mango you can probably throw it in later and warm  for another 2 minutes covered
Then mix it with the asian pear and the seeds/nuts or whatever you have on hand.

research acrylamides in foods

I decided to do a search for any recent development or changes in Acrylamide content of  Food specifically cereals. Here are some of my notes that hopefully will start someone off who also wants to look into it.

I also wanted to find out if toasting nuts, or seeds in my toaster would form Acrylamides.   

Here is the FDA site with links to all acrylamide content and links to other sites

Looks like 2006 is the latest data that contains the levels in foods.  I wish there was some recent updated data though to see if anything is changed.

A nice aggregate summary is here that lists each food and when the data was released.

So toasted cereals have the higher levels of acrylamydes, so if you eat cereal opt for non-toasted.
Also acrylamide levels moderately high in some baby foods such as sweet potatoes, peach cobblers, squash, carrots and green beans, plums

Here is a summary of top 8 foods by acrylamyde/portion although I am not sure how to interpret them - but you should probably limit coffee, prune juice and canned black olives as well.

This site has listings of studies done on acrylamides

QA on acrylamides from WHO states

We don't know exactly at what temperature acrylamide is formed in food. However acrylamide has so far not been found in food prepared at temperatures below 120 degrees Celsius (248 F), including boiled foods.  I wonder what is the temperature in my toaster oven.

Food should not be cooked excessively, i.e. for too long or at too high a temperature. However, all food, especially meat and meat products, should be cooked sufficiently to destroy food poisoning bacteria.

This report shows wheat based cereals generally contain more than rice or maize based cereals -

FDA also has some general guidelines here but doesn't answer any specific question like European sites.

Here is a report that shows that most acrylamides are in the bread crust from  CIAA – the voice of the European food and drink industry

I also found this site  with more info, clicking on Acrylamide Information Base and clicking on Study Area 1  : Levels of acrylamide in food  gives a summary of studies, similar to this site with  summary of actual current research about acrylamides and links for further research.

Here is another site which has links  to some further study

Soaking raw potato slices in water for 15-30 minutes before frying or roasting helps reduce acrylamide formation during cooking. Adding antioxidants, such as rosemary or bamboo leaves and green tea extracts have been shown to reduce acrylamide levels in several foods.