In the first part of this article I gave the first 3 easy steps towards a healthy diet. Here are the next steps:
4) Bread
The same that applies for Pasta applies for bread: choose whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread. In addition, it is also important to choose sour dough bread (zuurdesem brood in Dutch) instead of yeast bread.
Yeast has a more acidic, weakening effect on the large intestines. If you look at the effects of food with the view of “you are what you eat”, yeast has a swelling effect on the intestines just as it has on rising bread.
Sour dough bread has a more alkaline and strengthening effect on the intestines and intestinal flora.
Please visit your bakeries and natural food stores and find your favorite sourdough bread as they vary in quality and taste from baker to baker.
One of the wonderful things about sourdough bread is that you can steam it. Yes, that’s what you’ve just read, steam it for about 2-3 minutes when the bread gets dry and you will get a fresh and delicious piece of bread.
5) Rice
I think that if you followed up until now you got it. Brown rice is more nutritional, satisfying and energizing than white rice.
“But I don’t like the taste”. Well, for this I would say: come and try my brown rice and you will never go back to eating white rice again.
The most delicious preparation is brown round rice pressure cooked in a pressure cooker or cooked in a heavy skillet pan. A recipe is following right here!
Look, once you will learn how to cook it right, you’ll own it for the rest of your life! You also had to learn how to make white rice, no?
Ok, I won’t let you out of the door before sharing this wonderful recipe of brown rice with you.
True, you might know me as a chef with plenty of fancy-shmancy dishes. But I do want you to get started quickly, so for the beginning of this blog I will definitely share the easiest recipes with you before I will use my joker cards.
In this recipe I also use sweet rice, a variety of brown rice, which is more sweet and rich in protein. When you add it to long cooking dishes as this one it adds creaminess and stickiness, which is very delicious.
Now, for this rice to be really delicious you should serve it with gomasio on top. Gomasio is a condiment made from sea salt and sesame seeds that you can easily prepare at home or buy at the natural food store. I’ll keep in mind to follow with a recipe!
Brown rice
Ingredients for 3-4 people
1.5 cup brown round rice
0.5 cup sweet rice
2.5-3 cups water
2 pinches of sea salt
Wash the rice few times gently and quickly in water until the water is clear.
Combine the rice and the water in the pressure cooker and bring to a boil, add the salt, cover with the lid and bring to pressure.
Put the pressure cooker on a flame deflector and cook the rice under pressure for 45 minutes.
Turn off the fire and wait till the pressure comes down naturally. After the pressure went down, open the pressure cooker and mix the rice with a wooden spoon.
Cover with a bamboo mat (sushi mat) to allow the rice mix with the air while staying warm.
TIPS TIPS TIPS:
+You can repeat the same recipe with a normal pan. Use 4 glasses of water and cook the rice for 1-1.25 hour till soft, sticky and the water is gone.
+For those of you who are not experienced with pressure cookers, be very cautious with it: do not let the pressure get too high, or open it when it is under pressure. Please read the user manual very attentively.
+The rice should be soft and sticky yet crispy and the grains should be separate from each other and especially very delicious! If that is not the case, practice more, play with the water amounts and ask me, we’ll figure it out.
+With leftovers rice you can make porridge in the morning, fried rice with vegetables, rice croquettes or roll sushi’s.
6) Sauces and spreads
Yes, of course you can use pesto, tomato sauce, prepared Indian and Thai curries, vinegars, salad sauces etc. However, take a look at the ingredients-list and make sure it contains pure and natural ingredients, without sugar, artificial sweeteners, additives, chemicals, artificial tastemakers, e-numbers and more unrecognizables.
Most varieties of products that are found in the natural food stores don’t contain these kind of stuff and as more you will look on the back of the package the more knowledge you will have about what brings flavor to your food. And then whoops who knows, maybe one day you can actually recognize all the ingredients on the back of the package and actually make it yourself from scratch, who knows who knows, I’m just saying.
So not to leave you with your mouth open and with just plain brown rice in front of you, as delicious as it is. Here is a very easy recipe for what you can make with left overs of brown rice the next day.
Boys and girls, this recipe is meant to be easy!!! so please don’t make it difficult and ask me for quantities. Let’s just say you can mix everything you like in your rice, with wet hands make nice balls the shape you like to make them and deep fry them in 180 degrees sunflower oil (make sure the oil is not too cold and not too warm) till golden brown.
And for those of you who are lifting their eyebrow at this moment wondering how come I write about deep frying in an article about health, just drop your comment bellow and I promise to answer!
So these are a few of my favorite things to mix in with the rice (all cut finely): onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, sunflower seeds. All these together make a delicious combination but, of course, you can be as creative as you want.
This will make a very rich and satisfying snack or appetizer your guests, children and teenagers would absolutely love! It is also a great food to take on your way or to work in a lunch box.
Here I use various toppings to make it more colorful and fun:
Natural mustard without sugar (Yes! Most commercial mustard have sugar in them! WHY?!).
Parsely
Chrain: traditional Jewish condiment from grated beet root, grated horse radish, salt and pepper.
Tahini mixed with lemon juice and salt.
I serve it on a green leave and ginger pickles on the side.
I really want you to try to make these ones by adding ingredients following your feeling. Trust me, this way you will learn how to cook and it will make it easy and save time. After all it’s not rocket science.
And pleeeeeeeeeease post some photos when you make it! I’m so curious to see your rice croquettes.
Click here to read the third part of this article
Photos:
1st photo: Wouter van der Wolk
rest of the photos: Lize Jansen