Spicy rice and bean salad
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 onion finely
1 tsp
2 tsp
300g cooked rice (or another cooked grain)
2 tbsp cider
4 tbsp olive oil
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 courgette – cut into fine fingers
1 carrot – cut into fine fingers
2 diced tomatoes
½ finely diced red pepper
1 drained tin or 400g cooked beans of
Method
Fry the onion in a large pan until translucent in a little oil (coconut or sesame). Add the courgette, carrot and red pepper, together with the spices which can then infuse into oil and roast for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and mix in all other ingredients (rice, vinegar, olive oil, zest and lemon juice, tomatoes, beans).
Commentary
Variations
This recipe can form the template for all manner of simple summer bites since the beans, grains, vegetables and oil can all be varied For beans just about any bean will do, but also consider lightly cooked bean sprouts as a highly nutritious option. Similarly, there is a range of grains that fit the bill, but
buckwheat stands out as a grain that particularly promotes digestion.
For oils, think about using flax, hemp, rape seed (this must be cold pressed!) and sesame. They are all delicious and nourishing on a salad.
Spicy rice/bean salad (quick version)
Most salads, because they are predominantly raw and contain precious little in them to promote and support digestion, don’t sit well with Diet for Britain principles. Yet salads are one of the major working or home lunches in this country, even in the depths of winter. So what do we do if we have little or no time to cook in the middle of the day? There are two answers to this problem. The first is to be prepared! Just as we can get good tasty beans from a tin, so we can have a bit of cooked buckwheat sitting in the fridge from the night before. And if you haven’t got any left over cooked vegetables to sling in your lunch box with the buckwheat and beans, some bitter greens such as chicory, rocket, dandelion, nasturtium, parsley, coriander, basil, cress or rocket are the next best thing.
The second answer is very important; make a good spicy dressing. Of course your dressing should contain its basic elements, a good amount of quality oil, vinegar or lemon juice, and soy sauce. On top of this add mustard or mustard seed, a few chilli flakes, capers and some black pepper; a powerful spicy and aromatic combination to kick-start appetite and digestion and compensate for cold food. And if it is winter, then wash it down with a piping hot cup of tea!
Another Diet for Britain salad that is cooked to a degree. This cooking of the vegetables enhances digestibility and flavour and contributes to a light, but sustaining, vegetarian recipe.
It is an important principle that, because salad recipe ingredients tend to be raw, or lightly cooked and therefore largely composed of tough plant material, we should use spices and aromatic flavours to give digestion a helping hand; stimulating appetite, motility and secretion. In this case we use paprika, cumin and lemon zest. Other balance in the dish comes from vinegar and lemon juice which are necessary complements to the richness of the olive oil, stimulating bile release once the fat has been eaten.