Living the ZOE way with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: Hugh's Winter Gut Health Recipes

welcome back to River Cottage it's always brilliant to have the Zoe team here and I'm delighted to be knocking out another batch of seasonal recipes that pack in the plants to help keep you well through the chilly month ahead and well beyond too first up I'm going to be putting together a fabulous roasting tray of the finest veg of the season aromatized with some lovely herbs and a little bit of citrus and I'm going to be serving that with a delicious creamy hummus and a sprinkling of Ducker that's toasted spiced seeds a great way to finish any veg dish the colorful pile that I've got in front of me is three different Roots three different brassas a couple of alium some lovely herbs and the Secret Sauce the Citrus now I haven't counted yet but I reckon that's double figures of plants going in the tray and for a cheeky little gut friendly PUD I'm going to be sharing my cafir with you served up with a Tangy compt of dried fruits and some nuts and I'm actually going to show you how to make your own cafir using live cafir grains you won't believe how easy it is and it'll give you a ready supply every day of the week now back to the roasted veg these chunky roots are going to take a little bit longer than the brasas so I'm going to start with them kicking off with a good old carrot I don't always peel my carrots but in the winter when they've been stored and the Skin's just a little bit coarse uh I do whip it off with a very fine peeler turn it turn it turn it turn it and then you get these pointy little sharp edges which is really good for caramelizing in the oven much the same story with the pnps I love the tapering point on a pnip because it gives you lots of different textures when they roast you get a really chewy almost burnt tip and then they get a bit more tender as you go up the par snip my final root is actually a favorite of mine doesn't get nearly enough attention it's really inexpensive it's a swed again slightly random shapes it's not just the roots that are going in from the off I'm going to put these onions in because I want them to cook long and slow and get really nice and caramelized these sort of medium small red onions can go into quarters or halfes but I keep them joined at the base so they don't break up too much while they're roasting it's easiest to cut it lengthways then lengthways into a quarter and then just take off the papery skin to get to the good stuff you can see the these little yellow Sprouts in the middle of the onion reminding us that actually spring isn't very far away and right up to this moment these onions have the potential to grow again they're living Foods that's one of the reasons they're so packed with good things alive until the moment we cook them look at that that's a nice tray of roots and onions not too crowded still a little space around them and that'll leave room for the brassicas when they go later and look at these lovely colors even before we've added the greens and when I see a tray of beautiful colorful veg like this I'm always thinking that that color just means goodness you know at some level it tells you that each of those veg have got different things going on different nutrients I can't tell you what they all are probably some of my friends at Zoe can why not drop them a line and see if they know for me it just means lots of color lots of goodness at this point just the simplest of seasonings for the roots and onions salt pepper and a good dash of oil you can use whatever cooking oil you have when you're roasting veg but I do like to use good quality ideally unrefined oils this is British hemp oil which is really good on Omega-3s and excellent for roasting and this is some lovely organic olive oil so I'm going to use them both now I'm going to give it the cheffy shuffle just to make sure everything is nicely coated and that goes into a hot oven about 19 ° Cade I'm just giving the brussel sprouts a little trim maybe taking off one or two of the outer leaves to make sure they're nice and clean but when you're roasting them the outer leaves are going to get lightly charred anyway so they're quite forgiving and now that I've turned my attention to the brassicas I'm thinking of a nutrient that I've been finding out a little about it's called sulfurane it's brilliant for your gut biome and helpful in preventing all sorts of common diseases and almost all the brasas Sprouts cabbages broccoli are rich in sulfurane Sprouts already to go this lovely freshly picked purple sprouting broccoli hardly needs any prep or trimming I can see it's in great Nick and the leaves are delicious too of course I'm just cracking open a whole bow of garlic and all these whole cloves are going to go in I'm not going to peel the last of the papery skin off because they're quite small cloves and it'll help protect from the heat but when they're roasted I'll be able to squeeze out all that gooey garlic flesh and then the last thing that needs prepping is this beautiful hipy cabbage and the way to roast this is to keep it in wedges so you're using the base here to hold the wedges together so I'm going to cut it straight down from the base to the point probably half a cabbage is going to do me look at that just going to give everything a nice turn I can see some lovely crispy corners and golden edges already time to get the brasas in any moment but first for extra aromatics a few bay leaves and some Rosemary now it's very rare that I add ingredients to a dish that won't actually get eaten but munching on a bay leaf isn't a load of fun but they will impart their incredibly aromatic essential oils to the veg and the same goes for this Rosemary although I don't mind nibbling uh a few Rosemary needles when I'm eating the roots so the question I have about the bay leaves is given that we're not going to actually consume them do they count as a plant the Sprouts are pretty Hardy so I'm going to Tumble them in and toss them through the roots same goes for the purple sprouting another little trickle of my two oils tossing everything together now if it was colorful before look at it now with the greens getting in on the act you just know you're adding so much goodness at this point too last of the brasas because they're a little more delicate I'm going to arrange the hipy wedges over the top just salt and pepper again never too much but a little always helps everything tastes great one of each and finally a little quirky finish you may have been wondering what this orange is doing a bright fruit lurking among the Edge I'm going to cut it into chunks and spread it through the dish it's going to create an amazing final flavor lovely citrusy aromatics and a hint of sweetness and that's going back in the oven now I'm going to make the hummus and it's probably going to be a little bit different from any hummus You' made before for starters I'm doubling up all the ingredients to double the amount of plants so instead of just chickpeas I'm using two different types of pulse chickpeas and these lovely dark peas called Carlin peas these are actually a British grown pea but you could use any other pulse you could use chickpeas and kidney beans uh chick peas and butter beans works really well I'm also doubling up the traditional tahini by adding some armored butter as well and I'm going to be using lemon juice and some orange juice and not one but two types of oil let's get going time to add the Carlin peas of course there is a good reason people invented powered kitchen appliances to save the labor of this kind of work just bashing these two pulses together into this paste you know you're making something really healthy so much fiber so much goodness beans and peas and other pulses they really are the ingredients that we don't get enough of and a nice rough hummus like this is a brilliant way to enjoy them and now even more goodness and even more flavor the traditional tahini I'm putting a couple of generous teaspoons in there but not too much it's a really strong flavor and that's one of the reasons I turn to a nut butter to add yet another plant but a really healthy nut this time I've gone for almond butter but you could use a peanut butter or a cashew butter and the sticky spreads the tahini and the peanut butter they're what's going to bring this hummus together pulses like these are of course so good for us they're full of protein and fiber and it's fiber from as many different plants as possible that really helps nurture our gut biome and boost our immunity so they're doing great work for us and now I'm going to make them really delicious with some extra flavors starting with just a Slither of garlic this garlic is raw so it's a lot harsher than the Mellow roasted garlic in with the veg and I only need a tiny bit bit of it and the best way to get it in there is to mash it with a little sprinkling of coarse salt I'm just making a little paste of salt and garlic so that will distribute very nicely through the hummus crushing raw garlic like this actually breaks down the the cell walls and that releases one of Garlic's great aromatic qualities alisin which is also very good for us in it goes and that nice creamy paste will quickly distribute its way around the hummus just one little twist you're just very finely grating the outer zest you don't want to get too busy with that white pith because it can be bitter and that is a lovely load of lemon zest but I'm not going to stop there with a citrus I've got an unwaxed orange here it's always better to use unwaxed fruit when you're zesting that was an unwaxed lemon the thing about this hummus is I'm taking in the direction of being quite loose because it's going to be almost sort of pourable as a dressing for my roast veg rather than scoopable uh which is what you might think the normal texture of a humus is and of course the juic is going in too both the lemon and the orange that's going to add some sharpness and also a nice dose of vitamin C that's going to help with our winter Wellness keep those colds away so let's start with half a lemon and half an orange I just need to taste those seasonings where are we at with that Citrus oh my gosh that is really good those pulses are great I'm tasting the tahini and the almonds and that was a crunchy almond butter by the way so I got even more texture there which is brilliant this is also going to start to loosen a hummus one perfectly acceptable way to make it looser is just to add a little bit of water there's so much flavor here anyway that you're hardly going to dilute it what I've got here is some of the water safe from the chickpea jar so that's got some good nutrition in it as well worth hanging onto that for this little exercise in loosening the hummus now we're getting there it's beautifully creamy but also wonderfully textured just a final taste for the seasonings and I'm not double dipping my tasting spoon this is a new one oh that's gorgeous that Citrus is right there now the Nutty crunch of the little bits of almond it's really quite different from a regular humus and and it's great it's going to be brilliant with the roasted veg but of course I've made quite a bit more than I need to serve with a veg and I always do that when I make a hummus it's such a great snack Zoe's done some really interesting research on snacking which tells us that around 25% of all our energy comes from snacks and 75% of those snacks are from ultr processed foods so just by changing the way you snack and getting into things like humus and healthier snacks that can be really transformative for your health duckers a brilliantly useful combination of toasted nuts seeds and spices the biggest things go in first in this case it's the hazelnuts now a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds just waiting to hear a few of those crackle and pop got to give it another little shake to make sure nothing Burns time to sprinkle in the sunflower seeds and also the spices whole coriander seeds few fennel seeds and cumin seeds to be careful now not to over toast it everything's crackling very nicely it's not enough to just take the pan off the heat because it'll go on cooking so I have to tip it straight into a bowl to cool it's a great sprinkle to finish all kinds of dishes and it's brilliant with my roast veg and Hummer us now everything gets a good bashing a little bit at a time so that it doesn't get too explosive as it goes a pinch of salt a Twist of pepper wonderful toasted aromatic spicy notes coming from bashing up the seeds and spices together another little pinch of salt in this one I think I'm going to give them a bit more of a grinding just to really release those flavors fantastic smells now and there we have it a lovely crumbly texture and incredible naughty spicy flavors the spices in this Docker smell just fantastic and you know it's going to be a great final sprinkling on the dish those tiny spice seeds full of those incredible aromatics often have unique phytonutrients that you don't find in other plants so it's worth getting them into your diet and it's definitely worth counting them in your 30 plants a week you can hear that Sizzle and you can see that beautiful caramelization that is just perfect right it's time to Plate up this lovely combination of great flavors and health boosting plants let's start with a big swirl of our luscious creamy hummus I'm going to put it right over the base of the plate I don't want to overload it I think I've got a nice pair of plates to do here want to make sure everyone has got a bit of that orange to play with a few more little dabs of the hummus here and there now another layer of crunch and aromatics from this gorgeous Ducker making sure it particularly hits where the hummus is because that's where it's going to stick it's punchy stuff this Ducker you don't need a lot of it finally my chive tips a little sign of spring to come now you know what I've been totting up the plants I might not have got this exactly right I reckon we've got 12 in the roasting tray that's without counting the controversial Bay and rosemary we've got seven in the hummus and six in the Ducker I'm only counting the black pepper once by the way spices count totting those up that's 25 plants well on our way to 30 with a single plate of gorgeous plant- packed food this is such a lovely plate I mean there's just so much going on you know that every mouthful is going to be different every mouthful is going to be delicious and every mouthful is going to be abs absolutely packed full of plant goodness oh yeah such a great dish you've just got to go and try it well we've already packed in almost 30 plants with my roast veg creamy crunchy hummus and spicy Ducker but the idea of a little sweet something at the end of a hearty meal is a hard one to resist that little sweet thing doesn't have to be unhealthy in fact it can be seriously good for your gut and it can pack in a few more plants along the way so I'm going to show you something that I sometimes do at the end of a meal sometimes have for breakfast that's based around this really beautiful dairy product called cfir This is cultured milk brimming with live beneficial bacteria it's a little bit like yogurt but it's looser it's got even more strains of bacteria and it and it's got more of a Tang it's also got a refreshing acidity that I really like that's excellent at the end of a meal I love to enjoy it with a compot of dried fruits soaked for a few days in Kombucha and some nuts soaked overnight before I show you how I put that together I'm going to run through my cafir routine this is what I do every two or three days to draw down the cafir that's ready to eat and start the next batch going the last time I picked this up was a couple of days ago so what's in here is deliciously fresh cafir ready to be harvested and here's is how I do it the first thing I'm going to do is give it a stir with a clean wooden spoon it's traditional not to use metallic implements when you're handling fermented things because there can be a little bit of reaction certainly you don't want to store anything fermented in metal you can see it's lovely and creamy and a little bit grainy and those grains are the secret of cir's everlasting life now that I've stirred it just to blend it together you can see a few little lumps and bumps coming out through the cafair those are the clusters of grains the cafir grains that actually have the live bacteria in them that as long as you keep feeding them go on culturing the milk and making the cafir and just uh gently pushing the rest of the cafir through the SI until all that's left in the C are these gloopy clusters of grains once every 3 harvests or so I'll take this C of grains to the sink and I'll rinse them out with fresh cold water and that's sort of rejuvinates them it makes them hungry for more milk to feed them uh it's a really good way of keeping them really Lively and effective I'm going to start the next batch going by returning these granules to my jar just tipping them in a pint of fresh whole milk that's my preference you can use semis skim but it does go better with whole milk I'm pouring all of that over the grains into my jar this Rubber seal around my jar I put that on if I'm moving the cafir around but actually while it's doing its thing it wants to have it wants to be able to breathe so I'm just taking that off and that now just stays at room temperature in my kitchen for another couple of days three is also fine before the next Harvest when it will yield some lovely thick delicious cafair the longer you leave it the Tangier it gets and some people like a five day or we old cafir which is really quite strong and acidic I'm a kind of two or three day person myself the thing is just keep an eye on it if it's been at room temperature for 24 hours or more it will be cfir the strength and thickness will vary slightly you can always dip a clean spoon in and have a little taste in this jar is a compt of dried fruits that I've been soaking in my homemade kombucha for 4 days now that's all that's in there there's no added sugar all the sweetness in that liquor comes from the fruits themselves to prepare it to eat with my cafair I like to pull out a few Choice morsels and chop them up that's just going to make them a little bit easier to eat these are some dried apple rings from my own Orchard which I made in my dehydrator just chopping them into little pieces a dried unsulfured apricot along with those gorgeous dried fruits some nuts hazelnuts and almonds that I've soaked overnight in fresh water this really plumps them up as many of you will know sometimes called activating the nuts it makes them more digestible and it actually makes them more delicious they become tender and creamy rather than gritty and crunchy you can see it's got a nice creamy texture and the rest of this is going in my cafair bottle which is lovely and clean it'll go straight in the fridge and by the way if you're wondering why the word cafir is splurged so emphatically on this milk bottle it's because it has been known for certain members of my family to mistake this for the milk and put it in their tea and coffee they don't like it and it's a waste of very good cafir hence cafir is what it says on the bottle that's my little routine this gorgeous cafir goes in the fridge for me to enjoy over the next couple of days this is going to do its thing and it'll be ready in in 2 or 3 days meanwhile I'm going to enjoy a little treat the final trickle of the juice from my compt here we go a lovely way to finish my plant packed feast and a real treat for my gut microbiome and I really hope you'll have a crack at all these recipes at home just check out the information below just before I tuck into this it's worth saying that if it doesn't feel practical for you to make your own cafir at home then of course you can buy really good live cafir in the shops obviously I would say this but this one happens to be one of my favorites I really hope you'll try out all these recipes at home and stay tuned for the next batch of delicious seasonal healthy Delights for me being healthy isn't about fad diets or Pumping Iron down at the gym it's about enjoying life eating good food being out in nature but it is definitely about looking after your gut health too

Channel: ZOE

Views: 300,572

Keywords:

Id: D6aN6knLVM8

Length: 22min 59sec (1379 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024