EASY 'NO FUSS' HOMMUS

Its a little known fact that I spent close to five years of my late teens/early twenties working in a lebanese restaurant in the south west of Sydney where I grew up. My family lived on the same street as a pop up restaurant / chicken shop / burger joint, which quickly became the local go-to for good Hommus, Toum, Baba Ganoush, and traditional lebanese style chicken. The tabouli was always aplenty, and I very quickly learned to love kabees (pickles) as a late night pick me up (umami all day, anyone?).

In my mind, there is nothing worse than the grainy, lumpy, chickpea heavy hommus that most supermarkets sell. The problem with the decent kinds (shoutout YALLA dips), is that you’d be spending close to $15 a week on the stuff just to have a little each day with some carrot sticks.

This recipe is a SUPER simple, cost effective way to whip up your own hommus at home to taste JUST LIKE THE REAL DEAL. No nasties, five ingredients, done in 60 seconds.

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INGREDIENTS:

  • 500g tin organic chickpeas

  • 5 drops lemon essential oil

    (use something of a high quality — a 15ml bottle / 250 drops from doterra is $12.50)

  • 2 cloves garlic

  • 1 tablespoon pink salt

  • 1/3 cup hulled tahini

  • 2 tablespoons ‘light flavour’ olive oil

METHOD:

  1. Peel and chop garlic cloves.

  2. Drain some of the liquid from your tin of chickpeas.

  3. Toss all ingredients into a high powered blender (I use a vitamix) or food processor, and blitz until well combined / smooth ‘spreadable’ consistency. Add an extra drizzle of olive oil and blitz until desired consistency, or extra salt / lemon oil to taste. VOILA!

Its THAT simple. No more spending $10 on a nice tub of hommus. AND so ready to be whipped up when guests are popping round with two minutes notice. Serve with veggie sticks / biccies, or lather across some pita bread to serve with lamb. Delish.

BAKED CAPSICUMS

For the longest time I have had the silliest fear of carbs. When I was 19 and had just started running, thinking carefully about what I put into my body and just how important it was to eat to nourish and to fuel, I also lost roughly 12 kilos in the space of less than a year. I was energised and empowered, but also somewhat anxious and addicted to the feeling of being the girl who’d transformed her appearance and whose collarbones now protruded with the confidence of a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go out and get it.

I associated carbs with weight gain. I associated them with bloating and pain, particularly because I’d had such a strange up and down relationship with gluten. Whole grains sometimes seemed ok, but i’d find myself so hungry after restricting all kinds of food groups that I’d semi-frequently find myself eating granola straight from the jar at midnight to the point of feeling sick.

In the four to five years that have passed I have done a lot of work (psychologists not withstanding) to build a more balanced approach to food and a healthy mindset around eating. What I realised was that I was letting anxiety around food consume me - it was occupying my thoughts, shaping my plans around how I could spend my day / who I could be with. The fear begins to define you. What I learnt was, in the long term, it is absolutely not worth it.

I still don’t often cook rice. On this journey to navigate my chronic fatigue / autoimmune reactions I’ve found that avoiding grains for the most part keeps me from feeling foggy headed / bloated / sluggish. I’ll have corn or rice or gluten free bread or pasta maybe once a fortnight. That is absolutely not to say that dropping grains from the diet will help everyone with autoimmune struggles. The critical thing is learning to listen to your body and work alongside health practitioners to work out what will help your body shift from stress and inflammation to health and homeostasis (balance).

These baked capsicums have become a quick and easy staple for me. I’ve learned that life is to short not to enjoy NOURISHING, WHOLESOME food you love. When there’s leftover rice sitting in the fridge after I’ve had guests round (#lovefoodhatewaste), this is what I whip up. Sometimes I’ll cook or soak the rice in homemade bone broth and stir through some mushroom powders for extra nutrient value, but even without this is a meal FULL of goodness and nourishment galore.

INGREDIENTS:

2 large capsicums

3 cups cooked brown / white rice

1/2 cup cream cheese (I’m a fan of vegan / lactose free cream cheese)

Sprinkle of golden / brown flaxseeds

Sprinkle of hemp seeds

Sprinkle Himalayan pink salt

1/4 cup parsley / coriander, chopped finely

200g goats cheese / cashew cheese

Extra virgin olive oil

METHOD:

  1. In a large bowl, stir the cream cheese, seeds, pink salt, herbs and three quarters of your goats cheese through your rice.

  2. Carefully chop the tops off your capsicums (try to keep them fairly straight/flat - you’ll use these as your ‘lid’ for roasting), and scrape out the seeds.

  3. Drizzle the inside of your caps with olive oil, and stand them in a greased / lined baking tray.

  4. Scoop your rice mixture into the capsicums, pressing down firmly to pack the mixture in. Fill the capsicums until just overflowing.

  5. Top with an extra sprinkling of hemp and flax seeds, the rest of your crumbled goats feta and/or cashew cheese.

  6. Pop the lid back on your capsicums and roast in the oven at 190 degrees (C) for 30-40 mins (until the capsicum skin appears lightly charred on the outside).

  7. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, serve and enjoy!

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