Stoneground dark rye soda bread

Sandwiches, marmite on toast, anything on toast, buns, burgers, chapatis, nan, and a host of others. I miss them. I haven't had too many problems cutting out rice, pasta is ok, potatoes, well I miss, but I'm managing, but bread. I love bread. I miss bread. I always knew I wasn't going to cut bread out for life - it's got to be a lifestyle change and one I can live with long long long term, so this week I finally cracked and decided to experiment with bread.
Bread isn't all the same, GI wise. A baguette is horrendous with GI readings up in the 90s, white and even wholemeal are better, but not necessarily by much. Course barley kernal bread is really low, but I can't source the ingredients for that one. Wholegrain bread, pumpernickel and rye bread have a relatively low GI, so this seemed to be the way to go. And cramming it with low GI nuts and seeds would reduce it further. Stone ground seems to be the best processing to keep the GI low, so I wanted to use that too.
First I bought some pumpernickel. Seemed fairly low GI as bread goes. I wasn't familiar with it and it was frighteningly expensive, but, hey, I only planned to have it as an occasional treat.
Yeah, turns out pumpernickel isn't my thing. Not at all.
Back to the drawing board.
First the flour. I had some stoneground dark rye flour so decided to start with this.
I added nuts and seeds, and made a batch of soda bread buns which I then froze individually. I'm allowing myself one a week to satisfy those marmite cravings.

Ingredients
450g stoneground dark rye flour
450ml milk
Juice one lime
2 tablespoons whole almonds
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons steel cut oats
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Half teaspoon salt
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon honey

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Mix the milk and the lime juice together and leave to stand for ten minutes. It'll curdle. That's fine.
Add the honey and stir well.
Mix the dry ingredients together.
Add the milk mix and stir to form a dough.
Make into buns, or a loaf and arrange, with a little space around on a floured baking tray.
Bake for around 15 - 20 minutes (buns) or around 30 minutes for a loaf (it'll sound hollow when tapped when it is ready).
Serve hot, cold, freeze, toast, enjoy.

Tahini and celery soup

This is one of my all time favourite soups. It's great hot or cold and is packed with veggies.

Ingredients

2 leeks chopped
A head of celery chopped
4 or 5 spring onions chopped
A tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups vegetable stock
Paprika and dill to serve

Fry the leeks in the butter for 2 minutes
Add the celery.
Fry for one more minute
Add the spring onions
Fry for one more minute
Add the soy sauce and stir.
Add the salt and pepper.
Add the tahini and stir.
Slowly add the stock, one spoonful at a time, stirring all the time.

Don't worry if it curdles a little, it'll sort out in the blender.
Once cooked, add the olive oil and lime juice.
Blitz briefly with a hand blender, leaving plenty of chunks.
Serve with paprika and dill.

Pomelo and pistachio salad

Ingredients

1 pomelo
A handful of pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.
Some lettuce of other salad ingredients
Parsley - leaves only
Feta cheese for crumbling on top - you can also cube it if you prefer - to taste
And for the dressing:
Olive oil,
lime juice,
salt and pepper
Start with 2:1 oil:lime juice and adjust to taste.

Roast in the oven or dry roast on the hob the nuts and seeds.
Add the dressing ingredients to a jar, shake vigorously and taste. Adjust as necessary.
Shred the lettuce (or arrange it beautifully on a plate, if you prefer)
Top with the pomelo which has been peeled and all pith and seeds removed (from a low GI factor, any tropical fruit is going to be higher than most of the other ingredients we use, but sparingly, it is worth it, plus the fibre means that the GL (Glycaemic Load) is lower).
Sprinkle with the nuts and seeds.
Top with the parsley.
Crumble the feta cheese over, then, just before serving, pour over the dressing and serve immediately.
Crumble the feta

Savoury asparagus cheesecake

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Cheesecake works wonderfully as a savoury dish. This one, loaded up with cheese and asparagus is really tasty.

Ingredients

300 grams cream cheese

50 grams grated cheddar cheese

2 eggs and one egg yolk

100 grams cream

1tablespoon cornflour

15 stems asparagus

1 teaspoon mustard

salt 

pepper

1 - 2 tablespoons butter

a handful of sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds

a handful of almond flour

Around 2 hours before you start cooking, remove the cream cheese from the fridge. You want it to be room temperature.

Cook the asparagus tips and some chopped up pieces of asparagus for around 5 - 10 minutes in boiling water until soft. Drain and put to one side.

Toast the nuts and seeds in a metal tray in the oven (or dry fry them) for about 5 minutes.

Turn the oven down to around 150 C.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the nuts and seeds, together with the almond flour.

The mixture has the right balance of butter and nuts, etc. when it sticks together when pressed, but crumbles when rubbed in between your fingers. Add more butter, or nuts and seeds until this is achieved. 

Press the nut mix into the bottom of a loose based tin with high sides. We used one around 15 cms in diameter.

Mix the cream cheese and the cream together by pressing it against the side of the bowl.

Add the whisked eggs.

Sift and stir in the cornflour.

Stir in the mustard, cheddar, salt and pepper.

Gently add the chopped asparagus.

Arrange a few of the tips on the nut mixture.

Pour on the cheese mixture, gently pressing down till it is even.

Arrange the asparagus tips on top.

Put in the oven for 2 - 3 hours. 

When turning golden on top, switch off the oven and leave till cool. Remove from the pan and keep in the fridge until ready to eat.

This should be eaten cold. Try to resist till then. It's so so good.

Cheese and veggie omelette

One of the reasons that I believe the low GI diet has worked so well for me is that I am almost never hungry and therefore eat small portions of everything. I am eating three meals most days - sometimes two if I really can't face more food, and occasional snacks like almonds. One of the reasons this works so well is that I always, now, have breakfast. On most mornings this is yoghurt with vanilla essence, raspberries and whole or chunks of almonds, as it is quick and easy. On really busy days I'll have almonds, pistachios and walnuts, together with a couple of dried apricots on the go as I've run out of time! This also makes a great standby to keep with me in case of finding myself somewhere with no low GI food, a plastic bag of this in my bag or pocket, means I can keep the blood sugar from dropping too low wherever I am. Other days I'll have eggs - a poached egg over boiled asparagus and scattered with sea salt is fabulous, or omelette. I use to incorporate all the filling into the omelette itself, but now I prefer to have the veggies folded inside the cooked omelette. This one is my particular favourite.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tablespoon grated cheddar
1 leek
Half courgette
A few cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter
Herbs, salt and pepper, to taste.

Clean and chop the leek, courgette and tomatoes. Fry the leek in half the butter for a few minutes. Add the courgette and tomatoes.
While they are cooking, melt the rest of the butter in a small frying pan.
Pour in the whisked eggs and move around the pan a bit until the egg starts to set. At this point turn down the heat to the lowest possible setting and sprinkle over the cheese. Move the raw egg to the sides of the pan to make sure it gets thoroughly cooked.
Add any herbs, salt and pepper to the veggies.
Put the omelette on the plate, pour the veggies on top and fold it over.

Serve immediately.

Jerk sweet potato stew with black beans

If you are eating low GI, but really craving a potato hit, sweet potatoes are (ironically!), the way to go.This stew is packed with flavour and lower carb than it would be with regular potatoes, but the carbs here mean that it is something to eat in moderation.

Jerk seasoning:
1 tablespoon of black pepper corns
1 tablespoon of all spice berries
A knob of peeled and chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
The stalks from a bunch of coriander
4 or 5 spring onions, roughly chopped
Chilli - to taste
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 tablespoon soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice 3 limes

Blitz all the ingredients in a blender until a fragrant but dirty brown liquid.


Rest of stew
1 kg sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
400 grams tomatoes, chopped up
2 red peppers, cooked in oven for one hour, then skin and seeds removed and flesh chopped into bitesized pieces
400 grams black beans - cooked or strained from a tin.
500 ml vegetable stock
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Jerk seasoning (see above)
Leaves from a bunch of coriander

Fry the onion in the vegetable oil until soft
Add the jerk seasoning.
Fry for 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes
Fry for 10 minutes
Add the potatoes and enough stock to all the potatoes to boil.
Boil for 15 minutes

Add the balck beans and peppers.
Cook for a further 5 minutes. Serve with coriander leaves.

Summer eggs

Per person:

1/2 courgette, cut into chunks

handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

2 eggs (very fresh and broken into two small bowls

A few basil leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

Fry the garlic and the courgettes in the oil for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes and fry for a couple more minutes

Make a space in the veggies for the eggs.

Pour the eggs into the gaps

Cook over a low heat until the whites are close to set, but the yolk is still runny.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.