My Sprouting Adventure

So in an effort to eat more healthy fresh food, I have decided that I will incorporate fresh sprouted seeds, beans and legumes into my diet.

I followed the directions given by this chicky on her youtube video. It seemed like the easiest way, plus I had all the materials!

So my first sprouts I shall attempt are fenugreek seeds. I've read a little bit of information on them and they seem to have some pretty good properties. They are supposed to contain all of these vitamins: A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B15, B17, C, D, E, H, choline, folic acid, inositol, PABA. Pretty cool huh? It's also supposed to be a good blood cleanser, good for detoxing, helps to reduce mucus (yummo!). So I may as well give these babies a shot. The seeds are ground up and often used in curry powders. But I'm going to sprout them and eat them as little sprouts and also let some grow leaves and add them to salads!


Here's how my little fellas look while they are in their soaking phase:

Szechwan Eggplant

I know I have been uber slack with my blogging, but what can I say, I've been busy!

In this post I want to add one of my family's favourites. My omnivore dad loves it! He said and this a direct quote, 'I would eat this every night of the week for the rest of my life', yeah it's yummy :)

Szechwan Eggplant

Ingredients:

• 2 small red chillies
• 2 spring onions
• 2 eggplants (about 1kg)
• 1 tbspn peanut oil
• 1 tspn grated fresh ginger
• 1 tspn finely chopped garlic
• 2 red capsicums, cut into strips
• 5 spring onions, sliced

Sauce:

• 4 tbspn of sweet soy sauce
• 2 tbspn vinegar
• 1 tspn sesame oil
• 2 tspn sweet chilli sauce

Method:

1. Slice the chillies and the spring onions into fine strips. Place in a bowl of iced water and set aside.

2. Cut off and discard eggplant stems. Cut eggplant into cubes about 2cm x 2cm. Place eggplant into an already hot large frypan. Add enough water to cover the base of the frypan. Cover with a lid. Keep an eye on the eggplant to make sure the water doesn't dry up and the eggplant starts to burn. You are aiming to get the eggplant tender. Once done, remove eggplant from the pan and set aside.

3. Combine sauce ingredients and stir well. On a low heat, add oil to the fry pan, and fry ginger, garlic, capsicum and spring onions until garlic is golden.

4. Add sauce and bring to the boil. Add eggplant cook over high heat until most of the sauce has been absorbed. Serve on a bed (approximately 1 cup) of rice or quinoa and garnish with chilli and spring onions.

This meal serves about 6. According to an online dietary tracker I use, it has about 151 cals per serving (excluding rice or quinoa).

Well there you go. I made this tonight with a big bunch of lightly steamed asian greens, topped with garlic and almonds. I intend to upload a photo, but tonight I ate too quickly before I remembered to take a photo:S