Joan, our recipe writer, put us onto Green Kitchen Stories, a website and app of ‘healthy vegetarian recipes’. Joan is a nutritionist, so is far more nutritionally savvy than Mandy and I, who far too often find ourselves devouring a feast.
But when we are not stuffing ourselves on your behalf, we are very happy to eat meals without meat and are constantly moaning about what a bad deal veggie’s get in restaurants.
So we were delighted when the book of the website arrived on our desk. The Green Kitchen is written by a beautiful young Swedish/Danish couple, David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl. David, the Swedish one is a magazine art director so naturally the pictures and styling is fabulous. Danish Luise is studying to become a Nutritional Therapist so that’s where the health-giving recipes come in. But don’t think dull and worthy, think banana and coconut pancakes with maple syrup; think herb and pistachio falafel; think stone fruit salad with goat’s cheese and Moroccan vegetable tagine with dried apricots.
The majority of the recipes are gluten free and many of them are vegan and they’re excellent, inspiring dishes that restaurant chefs would do well to consider. You might want to stock up on spices and a few less familiar ingredients like kamut flour and kelp noodles (though mostly you can substitute), but most of the recipes don’t involve any special ingredients other than fruit, veg, nuts and seeds.
I do draw the line though at the Bubbling Kombucha Cocktail, a non-alcoholic drink made with kombucha – a fermented enzyme and pro-biotic- rich tea which involves steeping it for a week until mushrooms grow in it. I’ll stick to my 1.9 units of caipirinha thank you. I know Joan, don’t judge me.
The Green Kitchen: Delicious and Healthy Vegetarian Recipes for Every Day