Marinated Green Bean Salad

Roasting is one of my favourite ways to prepare vegetables and lately I have been serving them with a variety of creamy tahini-based sauces such as lemon, lime or orange flavours. However, a marinade is also a great way to intensify the flavour of food with just a few simple ingredients.

What is a Marinade?

Basically, a marinade is a liquid with seasoning for soaking food before cooking to enhance its flavour and texture. The roots of the word marinade come from the Latin word for sea (mare) and early uses of the word referred to steeping food in heavily salted liquid as way to preserve, flavour and tenderize.

However, today, marinades can include mixtures of vinegar, oil, herbs, or similar ingredients and the process of immersing foods in liquids can vary from minutes to days, and even months in unique situations.

Origins of Marinating

The specific ingredients in a marinade depend on the country of origin and also on the particular chefs. According to Slurrp, the concept of marinating food can be traced to the deserts of Ancient Egypt.

Dishes in Asia have been marinated in soy sauce for centuries and in Roman times, marinades were added for flavouring. From the 13th century, the French also began marinating their food and in North America, bottled marinades have been used since the 1800s. 

Recipe

This salad is inspired by Deliciously Ella and is a tasty and crunchy, light summer salad. It is quick and easy to put together although it does need about an hour to marinade in order to infuse the colourful ingredients with more flavours. This recipe will serve 2-4 people and is very versatile as it can be used as a side or a main dish served with other additions such as some crumbled vegan feta cheese.

Ingredients:

• 2 peppers (mix of red, yellow or orange)
• 225g green beans
• 2 spring onions
• 1 TBS sesame seeds
• 1/2 red onion

Marinade:

• 2 TBS tamari
• 1 TBS brown rice vinegar
• 1 TBS toasted sesame oil
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 1/2 lime, juice
• pinch of salt

Topping:

• 1 TBS almond butter
• 1 TBS toasted sesame oil
• 1 TBS brown rice vinegar
• 1 TBS tamari
• 1/2 lime, juice
• pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Prepare green beans and chop into bite-sized pieces and add to boiling water and blanch for about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to prevent further cooking.
2. Add to a bowl with chopped peppers, red onion, spring onion and sesame seeds.
3. Mix the marinade ingredients and add to the salad coating everything in the liquid and cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
4. Mix together topping ingredients until it is a smooth consistency.
5. When ready to serve, add the topping and a sprinkle of sesame seeds onto the salad mixture.

Closing Thoughts

Although marinades work well with many foods, optimum soaking times do vary. Harder vegetables like potato, carrots and beets need at least 30 minutes and can be soaked overnight, whereas semi-hard vegetables such as green beans, asparagus, and peppers work well between 30 minutes to a few hours. Softer foods like tomatoes and greens only need about 10 minutes and, when marinated for longer than 30 minutes, they risk releasing water and getting soggy.

For a complete meal, don’t forget the vegetable proteins like tofu, tempeh and seitan which marinade well for at least 30 minutes or up to several hours. The only downside of marination is that it does require planning ahead, but it is worth it as an easy way to be creative with adding flavours to everyday foods.

Other Salad Options:

• Farro, Kale and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing
• Raw Sweet Potato Salad with Curry Almond Sauce
• Spiced Almond and Quinoa Salad
• Millet, Beet, Lentil and Hazlenut Salad

Millet, Beet, Lentil and Hazelnut Salad

Along with many others, when I think of comfort food I often gravitate towards grains, breads, and pastas.  As grains are naturally high in fiber, they tend to leave you feeling full and satisfied. However, not many of us would think of a salad as comfort food but adding grains to vegetables, and other typical salad ingredients, can make for a tasty and satisfying meal.

Spiced Almond and Quinoa Salad

We often hear about the benefits of eating a diet rich in plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, pulses, and grains. As this advice is very general in nature, I was interested to read about the suggested goal to aim to eat at least 30 of these plant-based foods a week. Research suggests that the health benefit of this mix will promote a more varied gut bacteria which will ultimately lead to a healthier gut microbiome.

I was curious to see how many of these foods I actually included in my diet and so started to track my intake at the beginning of the year.  On the first day, I had consumed about 12 on the list and by the second day it was up to 19.  This seemed easy and I thought I would have no problem achieving the goal of 30.  However, as the week wore on my total didn’t really budge much. Although I eat plant-based foods, as a creature of habit, it appears they tend to be the same ones!

Introducing quinoa

In an effort to vary my diet, I started to look at adding foods I don’t normally eat and quinoa (keen-wah) was one of them. Quinoa cooks up fairly quickly (about 15 minutes) and can be used in a variety of dishes including soups and salads. It is naturally gluten free, rich in fiber, minerals and antioxidants. It is also one of the plant-based complete proteins which means it contains all nine essential amino acids. In fact, some say quinoa is one of the healthiest and most nutritious foods on the planet!

The origins of quinoa

Referred to by ancient grains as an ancient food, quinoa originated with the Incas in the mountains of Bolivia, Chile and Peru about 5,000 years ago. Although it served as a staple food for the Incas, they also considered it a sacred crop. Known by them as the mother of all grains, the legend states “that the Incan emperor would ceremoniously plant the first quinoa seeds every year”.

Recipe for Spiced Almond and Quinoa Salad

This quinoa salad was inspired by Deliciously Ella and can be prepared relatively quickly for lunch or served as a side salad to a main dish.  It is a great mix of flavours, textures and colours with crunchy nuts and seeds, soft roasted vegetables and fresh greens. In addition, this one dish will provide a whopping 9 out of the 30 plant-based foods for the week! Serve it with some avocado or hummus and the number keeps rising!

Salad:

• 1/2 cup (100g) quinoa
• 1 x 400g (14oz) can of chickpeas
• 1 large red pepper
• 1 small red onion
• 1/3 cup (50 g) whole almonds
• handful of sunflower seeds
• handful of pumpkin seeds
• handful of rocket (arugula)
• 1 tsp gound cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• pinch of chilli flakes
• pinch of salt and pepper

Dresssing:

• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp maple syrup
• pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C (375F)
2. Drain the chickpeas and pat dry
3. Place diced pepper and red onion on one end of a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil and salt
4. Place chickpeas, almonds and seeds at the other end of the tray and sprinkle them with the cumin, paprika, chilli flakes and salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix well so chickpeas, nuts and seeds are evenly coated.
5. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes (until nuts and seeds go crunchy)
6. Cook quinoa by following instructions on packet (usually twice as much water to quinoa and boil for about 15 minutes until all the water is absorbed and the quinoa is light and fluffy. Remove from the heat and stir the dressing ingredients through.
7. Either serve the salad warm by mixing everything together with a handful of rocket, or wait until the quinoa and veggies and seeds have reached room temperature before tossing them together.

Closing Thoughts

Quinoa was not part of my diet growing up and so, like a lot of the popular health foods today, it almost seems like a “new” addition to our diet despite the fact that it is actually part of ancient history. Quinoa didn’t really become popular in the modern world until around the 1970s but it has proved its worth in the past and, as such a highly nutritious and versatile staple, I imagine it will continue to remain as part of our modern diet.

As it was interesting to see the reality of how little variety I was actually eating, in terms of gut health, I am definitely trying to be more aware of maintaining variety in my diet and am glad to now have quinoa to add to the mix!

Additional information on gut health:

• The Clever Guts
• Eat the Rainbow

One Pot Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew with Cashew Coconut Lime Cream

When the weather turns cold and food is scarce, some animals such as bears hibernate to survive. Although people do not have the same metabolic characteristics needed to hibernate, I often feel the inclination to cocoon during the cold months of the year.  However charming this concept seems, the “not eating” aspect of hibernation has far less appeal. In contrast to the fasting bears, during these dark and cold days, I feel that nothing beats the comfort of a simmering pot of a hearty stew.  

Quick and Easy Lunches (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Most of us have grown up with the idea of eating three meals a day which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though lunch is now established as the second meal of the day, it hasn’t always been this way. According to Denise Waterman of BBC News Magazine, during Roman times to the Middle Ages, “lunch as we know it didn’t exist – not even the word.”

Most of us have grown up with the idea of eating three meals a day which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though lunch is now established as the second meal of the day, it hasn’t always been this way. According to Denise Waterman of BBC News Magazine, during Roman times to the Middle Ages, “lunch as we know it didn’t exist – not even the word.”