In this case, bulgar wheat and chickpeas. I've just read an interesting article on Agricultural Biodiversity about diet, referencing work that tentatively suggests eating bitter vegetables and marginal foods may increase your life span because the body recognises that the food isn't optimal for offspring and damps down the reproductive systems. That's rather a poor precis so I recommend you follow the link to Jeremy's piece and go on from there.
This light evening meal isn't particularly poor nutritionally but does include some food that might only be eaten in desperation, beetroot leaf stalks. They were just so pretty and succulent looking that I couldn't bear to waste them.
Cook some bulgar (pre-cooked whole wheat grains, cracked and dried) in twice its volume of water. Add a little salt and herbs if you desire. The bulgar takes about 10 mins to cook so after five minutes add your washed and neatly chopped beet leaf stems (just like chard really!) and allow the whole thing to cook. Take off the heat after another five minutes, cover and leave to cool while you prepare the rest of the salad.
I used a lot of cucumber in this, had to or it would have ended up in the compost, shallots, chickpeas (from a tin or otherwise precooked), parsley, lemon juice, a little olive oil for flavour, salt and pepper, effectively making a warm tabbouleh with beet stems in it. I needed to sharpen the flavour with a teaspoon of cider vinegar but it's by no means essential, adjust to your own taste by varying the amounts of lemon juice.
Subsistence food perhaps but pretty good.
2 comments:
Not sure what to think of them little facts COS but deliscious recipe nonetheless!
Cheers
David
Go on, you know you need a reason to eat your bitter veggies! As a theory it is pretty speculative but it works for me!
Post a Comment