Inclusive cooking isn't about complex meals, it's about feeding everyone at your table delicious food that they can all enjoy without messing up anybodies tummy or their ethics.
Let's start with a really simple soup. I love red lentil soup, it's vegan (if you use the right stock) and it is suitable for most people living with a food allergy/intolerance. The only people you should be careful about giving it to are those allergic to tomatoes, onions or celery (unless you can make some celery free stock).
For Simple Lentil Soup you will need:
170g of red split lentils (washed)
450ml of fresh water
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion, freshly chopped
1 tin of plum tomatoes, chopped
450ml of gluten free vegetable stock
And possibly some cream cheese (for example Philadelphia ) or crème fraîche
(I just put the links in so you can find the stuff, they are not sponsored in anyway)
You will also need a blender for this recipe.
Having
rinsed your lentils add the fresh water and bring to the boil. Continue
to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the lentils are very soft. It's
important to use fresh water and not stock, equally do not add any salt,
it reacts with the proteins on the outside of the lentil forming a
tough water tight barrier and your lentils will not go soft.
Heat
the oil in a pan and fry the onion gently until it goes soft and loses
colour (about 2 minutes). Don't use pre-chopped onion from
supermarkets, it's not just lazy it's expensive and they add sulphates
to it to preserve it. Plenty of people are sensitive to sulphates which
is why it's also a good idea to use organic tomatoes which are also
sulphate free (Suma do a nice one).
Add the tomatoes, the garlic if you are using it and the cooked lentil mixture (you don't need to strain the lentils, bung it all in!) and add the stock.
If you're cooking for a vegan do check the stock doesn't have lactose or other milk products in, if it is suitable for vegans it will usually say so and if you really can't find any a very weak solution of yeast extract will do the job. (I use Knorr which I think is vegan but please correct me if it's not!)
Bring it back up to simmering and leave for about 6 to 8 minutes then blend.
If you are giving this soup to little ones or those that need more calories then generally I would say to add a good dollop of cream cheese or creme fraiche not just because it looks lovely swirled into the soup but because this soup is high in fibre and the dairy helps to raise the calorific content, also it then becomes a 'complete food' containing all the essential amino acids your body needs to make protein.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a suitable bread and good company.
I love this soup but to be honest if I ate it everyday I might find it a little bland so every so often I like to jazz it up a bit.
Spice up your life!
Here are the optional extras!
A bay leaf - add it with the stock but for goodness sake take it out before you blend!!
1 to 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon of finely chopped fresh ginger
Chilli powder, flakes or oil (the amount depends on you!)
- Add anyone or all of these to the onion as cooks. Chilli flakes also look great as a garnish.
Vegan (gluten free) Worcestershire sauce - this also works great as a garnish and adds a lovely taste.
(I like one made by Life and it's available in most supermarkets)
For a vegan it would be a good idea to add some sesame seeds as a garnish to complete the proteins. Watercress also makes a lovely healthy garnish.
And finally if I'm making the soup for little ones to eat too I leave out all the extra flavours and just add some ground herbs and spices on top of my serving at the end. I particularly like red hot chilli seasoning by Fiddes Payne. (Again these links are not sponsored, I'm just telling you stuff that works for me)
ENJOY. xx
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Inclusive cooking will not make you thin, it's not a health blog and neither is it culinary genius. It is about you being able to feed everyone who comes to eat at your place with the minimum of fuss, and for me it is a way of life.
Let me explain.....
After years of struggling with ill health my husband decided to cut wheat and gluten out of his life and quite quickly his health started to pick up again. 6 years later and he never seems to have a day off ill. We are not medics, we can't say for certain that he is allergic to gluten only that he is clearly intolerant of it as on the few occasions when he has slipped many of his symptoms have return.
During those six years we've been lucky enough to have two beautiful children. After a fair bit of research we decided that when we introduced solid food we would follow the path of Baby Led Weaning in short that means eating family meals together with a focus on cooking things that could be classed as finger-foods (carrot cut into sticks etc.) so I had to find meals that would suit them AND be safe for my husband to eat.
And finally there's me. I'm either allergic to or highly intolerant of, palm oil and coconut. Sound easy enough to avoid? Let me tell you, it is far from easy, you wouldn't believe the stuff those two things get into - dried fruit, noodles, breadsticks and butter-type speads to name just a few. Honestly it is every where. Also I can't eat most other nuts but luckily they don't kill me they just make me very ill.
But the biggest reason for Inclusive Cooking comes from experiences over the last 25 years of being vegetarian.
The 'Special Dish'
The
reasons I chose to be a veggie are mine alone and belong in a separate
post, what I want to talk about here is the dreaded 'special' dish.
Whenever I ate at someone else's house or even a restaurant in the early days I had 'the special dish',
something different to everyone else. Generally the other people looked at you, looked and the dish and thank god that the cook knew how to cook their meal.
And it wasn't just the 'experimental cooking' that upset me. Imagine
you went to a toga party and everyone is wearing togas but they make you
wear a ghost costume. It's still basically just a white sheet, but
you are different. People watch and clearly feel sorry that you can't quite fit in (for except perhaps
when the ghost costume is really glam with cool glow effects then
everyone is 'ooOOoo, I almost wish I was a ghost too'). During the few years I tried being vegan it was even worse. OK so I was born an original and I don't want to die a copy, I like standing out sometimes but I don't always want to stand out,
especially if standing out means another bland vegetarian lasagna or a
ratatouille with lumps of over-salted and undercooked aubergine.
I feel
that if you are all eating the same meal together then you should ALL be
eating the same meal. So as a cook I cook to the common
denominator (no I don't cook by fractions) that is to say I take
everyone's dietary needs into account and come up with ONE DISH that
suits us all. It's inclusive, we all share the same experience. Plus it
comes with the handy advantage that I don't have to come up with 2 menus
and we all get to eat at the same time. Group meals, especially family
meals are important bonding sessions.
In my
family inclusive cooking can be a pretty complicated affair, as I explained I'm veggie
with an allergy to nuts, palm and coconut, my darling husband (DH) is
gluten and wheat intolerant and my two kids are just intolerant of
anything new/spicy/packed with veg. I'm kidding, they eat plenty that
most kids wouldn't but they are not 'food motivated'
(thank goodness) and that makes in my experience, for a picky eater. Plus
the children have at least one friend who we sometimes cook for who can't
eat eggs and another little pal who (due to a medical condition) will be on a
reducing diet for a very long time. Add
to that my insistence that every meal must be flavoursome and not bland
(a reaction against too many insipid vegetarian lasagnas) and
nutritious and wow, that's one heck of a challenge!
So here is my promise to you, every recipe I stick on here is going to be
- Easy to cook and adapt (even for the ardent meat eater)
- Veggie (and hopefully adaptable to vegan)
- Nut free
- Gluten and wheat free
- suitable for small children
- as nutritious as I can make it
- as flexible for other allergies as I can make it.
Oh and they will all be delicious. OK?
