Wholefoods Cooking Class for Health and Vitality

Five quick tips for getting health and vitality back into your life with wholefoods cooking class

Tip No. 1.

No wholefood meal is complete without leafy green vegetables. The “greens” – kale, spinach, collards and shallots cook in literally a minute or two. A side of greens adds a dash of colour to one of my most favourite vegetable dishes, cauliflower with béchamel sauce.

Hint, if you want to cut down on heavier traditional sauces such as béchamel, then take my advice and substitute ¾ of the sauce with cauliflower that has been steamed or boiled and then blended; if you like you can still keep some dairy in it by adding a touch of butter, yoghurt, cream or milk for a richer consistency. You will find that the added flavour of the pureed cauliflower in the sauce is sensational.

Tip No. 2.

Forget heavy pastries, work with wholefood ingredients instead. Substitute seeds for flour, choosing millet, sesame seeds, chia seeds or whole-wheat flour as the base, add in some extra virgin olive oil to make a fantastic pastry with a beautiful crunchy texture.

Tip No. 3.

Fresh herbs are an essential wholefood for flavour, colour, fragrance, medicinal benefits but have no calories. Just think of that aromatic whiff of fresh dill on salmon, of freshly torn basil leaves on tomatoes or freshly chopped coriander on a green curry. Be creative and kick the traditional matching of herbs to cuisines, mix it up, be brave – try spicy Kim Chi with rocket; coriander on your omelet.

Chilled soups are so much more than gazpacho. In this decade the chilled soup is a perfect dinner entrée or soup shot canapé. My favourite is a chilled avocado soup served over a spoonful of wholefood smoked chick peas, garnished with tomato salsa and dash of olive oil.

Tip No. 4.

Wholegrain wholefoods are the key to weight loss.

Forego the pasta and the potatoes and go for the wholegrains – add millet, amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa and freekeh to your salads or toss through steamed broccoli, or use as stuffing in Portobello mushroom caps.

Hint – if you cut out bread for a couple of weeks, and then gradually add in wholegrains, it will keep your blood sugar levels stable and keep you feeling satisfied and kick start your metabolism.

Tip No. 5.

Talking of cutting out the sugar – make your own cool wholefood drink by blending some fresh fruit – peaches, strawberries, apricots or pineapple;

Add a couple of spoonfuls of the pureed fruit to a long glass;

Top up with soda water and ice; and

Garnish with fresh mint and edible flowers like these ones straight out of Putia garden.