Cooking Class Food as Medicine

Cooking Class

Food as Medicine

We look to new vitality with a few great tips we picked up from Chef Sam Gowing at her “Food as Medicine” master cooking class at Putia Pure Food Kitchen in April 2016.

Why are Black Chia Seeds trending as a super-food?

Quite simply, black chia seeds repair the gut by renewing the mucous membrane lining the intestine wall and help to cool down the intestinal environment.

More on what that hot or cold environment means for your health later.

How does my body tell me that my gut maybe out of synch?

If there is inflammation of the skin around the nose/nostrils and upper lip area, it may indicate that the small or large intestine is slightly inflamed, often from gluten.

So let’s see what is so amazing about omega 3 rich, black chia seeds in getting your gut back on track.

Let’s start with the texture of chia seeds and how the texture changes when it is soaked in water or coconut water or in homemade rosella syrup, as in our recipe here for “Native parfait of berries, rosella syrup, finger lime and Kakadu plum”.

The texture becomes pudding like with the seeds becoming quite slippery. Seeds like this that store water are the really important mucilaginous foods – these are the ones that help to heal the membranes of the intestinal wall.

Slippery foods are natural laxatives and are much gentler on the intestinal tracts than some other laxatives such as psyllium husks that can be rough and abrasive.

Tips on matching up food benefits to certain parts of our bodies ….

For kidneys – it is the black seeds and foods;

White foods are good for the lungs;

When the vegetable is cut through, if the profile has an outline of an eye then that vegetable will be good for your eyes – check out a cut carrot for the eye;

Walnuts are good for your brain but if the nut is taken out of their membrane, it dies; just re-soak the nuts to bring them back to life;

Veins in tomatoes good for heart and the prostrate;

Kick start your metabolism with warm water and cayenne pepper first thing in the morning; and then add chili to just about everything;

Turmeric the wonder food, best peeled using a spoon, assists in the fighting of arthritis and cancers and the shrinking of tumors due to the antioxidant impact of the carotenoid – that rich pigmentation;

Wheatgrass too is a powerful anti-oxidant

And then there is seaweed!!!

Cooking Class Food as Medicine – Seaweed

Seaweed is incredible because it is the most healing powerful food around.

And why is it incredible? Arame seaweed, of the black food group, is one of the most naturally dense mineral foods that we have. Not only does it tone the kidney, it is a rich source of calcium and is an absolute must to include in your daily diet.

Seaweed is an alkaline forming food and that’s why it plays such an important role in turning around acidic environments in which chronic diseases thrive. Acidic hot environments are the downside of our Western diet.

How to turn from acidic to alkaline?

To re-balance and detox, increase the number of serves of seaweed, spinach, kale and broccoli – all the dark, rich coloured vegetables and then minimize the intake of red meat.

Seaweed the detoxifier – how to use it?

Think of it as a bay leaf – add it to minestrone soup, spaghetti sauces, cooking lentils.

Get your seaweed hit with this incredibly healthy recipe “Japanese salad of sea vegetables, almonds with kelp noodles”.

Japanese salad of sea vegetables, almonds with kelp noodles Serves 4 as a side

1 packet kelp noodles, rinsed well and drained

Good handful of green leaves, washed and dried thoroughly

1 toasted nori sheet, shredded

1 tablespoon arame seaweed, soaked and drained

1 tablespoon wakame seaweed, soaked and drained

2/3 cups almonds, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon pickled ginger, shredded

Dressing

1/3 cup macadamia nut oil

2 tablespoons mirin

1 tablespoon tamari

1 teaspoon miso paste

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 lime, zest and juice

Rinse and refresh kelp noodles, drain and set aside
Combine sea vegetables, leaves and almonds
Add pickled ginger
Whisk dressing ingredients together well and gently blend into salad

Native parfait of berries, rosella syrup, finger lime, and Kakadu plum Serves 2

4 tablespoons black chia seeds
1 cup water
1 cup mixed fresh berries
1 tablespoon teaspoon maple syrup
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rosella syrup – see below
1 cup coconut yogurt
1 teaspoon Kakadu plum powder
2 tablespoons macadamia nuts, crushed
2 finger limes, pearls only

Soak chia in water for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine berries, maple syrup, lemon juice and zest, vanilla.
Add chia and blend until smooth in a food processor.
Distribute half the mixture into individual serving glasses.
Layer with berries rosella syrup and add more chia mixture.
Add a layer of yoghurt.
Continue this process, so you have two layers of chia and two layers of berries to create a trifle effect.
Set in fridge 4 hours or overnight.
Before serving, crush macadamias with Kakadu plum
Spoon on top of each parfait
Drizzle with rosella syrup and a pinch of finger lime pearls to serve.

Rosella syrup
4 cups of rosella flowers, seed pods removed, rinsed
1 cup coconut sugar
water

Place flowers and sugar in a saucepan and add water to almost cover.
Bring to boil and then reduce and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
When the flowers have lost colour and the liquid is deep red, strain off and discard the flowers and return liquid to the pan.
Simmer the liquid for 10 to 20 minutes until reduced by a third.

A secret look at a few of our must have ingredients in Cooking Class Food as Medicine :

Simply Organic Peppermint flavor
Tania Maple syrup
Turkish yoghurt probiotic (in the cashew cheese recipe)
Doterra On Guard
Arame seaweed
Wakame seaweed
Macadamia nut oil

If this sounds like something you are interested in then register your interest for our next Cooking class food as medicine . Email us at eat@putiapurefood.com .au with subject line of “Food as Medicine”.