Recipes

 Recently, there has been much research into the health benefits conferred by the essential oils found in basil. Scientific studies have established that compounds in basil oil have potent antioxidant, anti-cancer, antiviral, and anti-microbial properties.
Basil also has been shown to decrease the occurrence of platelet aggregation and experimental thrombus in mice.
It is traditionally used for supplementary treatment of stress, asthma and diabetes in India. In Siddha medicine, it is used for treating pimples on the face, but noted that intake of the seeds in large quantities is harmful for the brain.

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 This tofu-based quiche is much healthier than the egg and cream original, and it tastes amazing.

Filling:

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 package silken tofu

2 table spoons white miso  Read more

After 10 days of eating only brown rice and water, I had a good idea for pickles: green bean pickles.
Take 1100 gr. green beans, 300 gr onion, 150 gr carrot,5 cloves of garlic, 2 inches fresh ginger, 3 clove pods, 3 juniper berries, 3 leaves of laurel, 1 table spoon sauge, 1 tea spoon of thyme, 60 gr natural seasalt.Read more

Today I started to make long term pickles; those are pickles which take much longer to ferment, as the vegetables are cut in much larger pieces.

2 cauliflowers, 1 broccoli, one big carrot, half an onion, 2 stems of celery, 4 pieces of garlic (not sliced), and a whole bunch of fresh dill (roots  included).
As herbs I add juniper berries, mustard seed, dried thym and clove pods. I added 40 grams of salt, a litle bit of juice of my pickled cabbage and I filled with spring water, till the Perfect Pickler was full.

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I was asked to write a rice milk recipe: how you make rice milk depends solely on your milk maker.
I use the soy milk maker from HomeMate, the D 54902. It is a very practical, simple and robust machine.
First I soak 80 grams (2,8 ounces) rice overnight (I use brown GABA rice), and put the rice together with 1,7 liter of water in my D 54902.
This milk maker has 3 positions: full bean, 5 cereals and mung bean. As I never make bean milk, I always use the position 5 cereals.Read more

A typical winter dessert and easy to make in only 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 red apple, a table spoon of tahin (sesame paste), a dash of salt, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a hand full of non bleached sultana's, a table spoon of sesame oil.
Take the apple, cut it in quarters, remove the core, sprinkle with the cinnamon powder and the salt.Read more

Cooking is not only an art, it is also a technique; even if you have the best ingredients, you can ruin a meal by the wrong techniques.

I cook vitro-ceramic and can choose the heat between 0 and 9; if I fry I heat the pan on 7 for a while before I add my oil, this way I need less oil. Afterwards I add the vegetables, close the  lid and put the heat on 4.  Read more

How to make healthy ice cream?

You take :

-3 cups amasake 

-1 cup of cereal milk

-2 tablespoons agar agar flakes 

-1/8 teaspoon sea salt

-8 tablespoons of carob 

-1 tablespoon of tahini ( sesame paste, you also can use peanut butter)  Read more

Rice burgers are healthy and easy to make; just take some brown rice, and a spoon of miso, fry an onion with some garlic and ginger untill the onion is  transparant, add the mix to the rice, add some thyme, soy sauce  and blend well with a pestle, till in becomes one paste.Read more

It is not easy to go to work or to school with a healthy lunch box, as people always look at the food you eat, and ask questions about it.

Last weekend I had a day trip with some people who do not eat health food, so I made  me some wraps with spring roll pastry.

It is easier to make than sushi : here I used slightly cooked vegetables, baked tempeh, pickled vegetables, brown rice, sesame and flax seed but of course you can use whatever you find in your fridge. You also can add a bit sauce, just do not make it too liquid.

For kids, you also can make dessert wraps, with baked apple with cinnamon and sesame butter, sunflower kernels, pumkin seeds etc..

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As I was craving for tempeh , since I moved to Thailand 2.5 years ago, I started to investigate how I could get it here in Bangkok, as there is a small factory about 50 kilometer, 35 miles from here.

And I finally found a shop, The Lemon Farm, where the staff wanted to order it for me.

In my enthousiasm, I ordered far too much, 12 packs normal soy tempeh and 12 packs soy tempeh  with black sesame seed. A pack weigh 150 gram (5.2 ounces) and costs 43 thb, so about 1 Euro or 1.50 USD.

I prefere tempeh over tofu for many reasons; if the tempeh get older, it gets more "cheezy",  tempeh is a fermented product, tofu is not, tempeh contains vitamine B12 (except the tempeh made in the USA, as the FDA applies some strict rules about "hygiene").Read more

Coming back from the gym today , I passed a Pizza Hut outlet, so I wanted to make pizza. First I started with the filling:

1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 mushrooms, a quarter of a pumpkin,some leaves of basil (I used fresh holy basil, but you can use whatever kind of basil), ginger and optional garlic. Slice everything very fine, grate the carrot for a smoother structure. Do the onion with some sesame oil in a hot pan, fry it till it gets brown and transparent, and add the other ingredients, put it on a lower fire for 30 minutes and afterwards take the lid of the pan so the humidity can evaporate.Read more

As most mustards are made with distilled vinegar, chemical food additives and even sugar, why dont we try to make our own mustard? There is no limit on creativity when you make home made mustard.
The technique is to soak the seeds overnight in a liquid, add the herbs you wish amd crush it very well in your mortar or blender.
Mustard plus your choice of vinegar makes a great hot dog mustard, while mixing beer with  mustard results in a hot deli-style mustard. Soaking it in white wine makes a Dijon-style mustard, and mustard seed  mixed with water produces a hot yellow mustard like you get in Chinese restaurants.Read more

Due to social events, I had to go eat out 3 times in two days, so I did not feel 100% and decided to make a rice soup breakfast. I love this soup , as it is easy to make, I can get rid of a lot of left overs and afterwards there are not many pots to wash.

It is also very adaptable to the local markets as you can put almost any kind of vegetable in it.

I take  one leek, half an onion, cut both fine and put then in a pot with some sesame oil to fry a few minutes.Read more

As I had a craving for French fries yesterday, I bought some sweet potatoes.
In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables: considering fiber content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value. According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato.(NCSPC) 

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