Tallulah Ebbs, Author at Alfalfa House

Recipe of the Month : Soba Noodles with Silken Tofu

March 9, 2022
by Tallulah Ebbs

The recipe of the month is this quick and easy soba noodle made with silken tofu. It uses wholesome , unprocessed and natural ingredients . Alfalfa House stocks all these ingredients so give this recipe a try and let us know how you go. And if you’ve got a recipe to share, then let us know at the email below. [email protected]

Soba Noodles with Silken Tofu

Quick and easy vegetarian soba noodles made with silken tofu

200 g organic silken tofu cut into 2cm squares
70 g dry soba noodles
1/2 cob corn kernels cut off the cob
50 g onions finely chopped
20 g garlic chives cut into 3cm lengths
100 g green beans cut into 3cm lengths
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1.5 tbsp organic Tamari
1 tbsp organic oil ( (I use coconut oil as it’s stable when heated))
1 tsp sesame oil

Marinate the tofu in 1/2 tbsp of the tamari and set aside for later.
Bring some salted water to the boil to cook the soba noodles. When boiling, add noodles and cook until al dente. Drain and rinse well with cold water to remove all the sticky starch that makes the noodles clump together. Set aside.
Sauté the onions in the desired oil until soft. I usually do this on very low with the lid on.
Add the rest of the tamari and the green beans and cook for 5 mins with the lid on.
Then add the corn. Add the soba noodles and toss through for a minute to reheat them.
Remove from stove and add the garlic chives, you don’t want them to wilt too much.
Gently pan fry the tofu pieces and add to the noodles.
Serve and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Main Course

vegan, vegetarian

soba noodles, tofu

Winter Warmer – Cauliflower Chickpea Tagine with Wholemeal Couscous Recipe

North African cuisine is heavily influenced by a number of cultures including Arabic culture, with ingredients such as ginger, saffron and cumin and the matching of sweet and sour, which gives North African dishes a distinct flavour. The Spanish introduced products like olives, tomatoes, paprika and Jewish refugees introduced preserving methods such as preserved lemons. Couscous, a staple of North Africa is produced from wheat flour rolled into tiny balls of dough which are steamed and eaten as an accompaniment to tagines.

This dish uses all these ingredients to create a flavour explosive recipe for one to add to their weeknight dinner collection. If you do make this tagine and couscous recipe, please share your photos and tag us on Alfalfa House Instagram. We would love to see your creations 🙂

Recipe and images courtesy of Sandra Clark, one of our members and volunteers

Cauliflower and Chickpea Tagine

A cauliflower and chickpea tagine recipe that is warming, vegetarian and vegan friendly. It is wholesome and nourishing, ideal for winter weeknight dinners.

2 Bowls
1 steamer
Tea towel
sieve
Oven proof casserole dish
Knife, chopping board

1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp butter or coconut oil
1 medium brown onion (chopped coarsely)
2 cloves garlic (( or 1 clove Russian garlic ))
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp raw sugar
400 g organic chickpeas can (drained)
1/2 medium cauliflower cut into small heads (florets)
400 g tin organic Tomatoes- chopped
1 tsp harissa (or more if you like it spicy) (sub for chilli powder or flakes if you can't find harissa)
1 bunch organic coriander, ( roughly chopped)
1/4 medium preserved lemon ((rind only coarsely chopped))
20 g sea salt
A pinch black pepper ((freshly ground))

For the Couscous

350 g wholemeal couscous
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 sprigs coriander

Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy based saucepan. (I use a cast iron pan.)
Add onion and fry for 2-3 minutes on medium heat until soft.
Add chickpeas and cauliflower florets
Add in chopped tinned tomatoes and stir in Harissa. Season with salt and pepper.
Add just enough water or vegetable stock to just cover cauliflower. Bring to the boil then turn down to simmer, put on lid and cook gently for 15-20 mins.
When cauliflower is almost tender, toss in half of coriander and preserved lemon and cook a further 5-10 minutes.
Remove from stove and garnish with the rest of the coriander.

To make the couscous

Place wholemeal couscous in a bowl and just add warm water until it resembles wet sand.
Add 1 tbls olive oil and toss together.
Place in a steamer lined with muslin or a tea towel. (see picture)
Steam for 20-30 mins
Remove from steamer and place in a large bowl and toss the couscous with a large spoon. This will make it light.
Serve in a separate plate decorated with ground cinnamon and coriander sprigs or toasted almonds

Tips:
If you have a heat proof saucepan you can put the tagine in the oven at 160 degrees C. for 20 minutes.

Main Course

African

cauliflower, couscous, tagine, vegetarian

Going zero waste

Ruby Pandolfi is an arts and law student at UNSW and has been volunteering at Alfalfa House for a year. She’s also the volunteer coordinator at AYCC – Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Here she tells us about her journey to go zero waste.

If you are interested in zero waste and want to learn how you can do it, come you our open day on May 26.

In Australia alone, one million take away cups end up in landfill every minute. Right now, there are around 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean, and each year enough plastic is thrown away by us humans to circle the earth four times.

I’ve always thought of myself as someone who really really cares about the environment. I cared about the big issues: solar energy and renewables over fossil fuels, global warming, sea level rise, deforestation, overfishing, species extinction… the list goes on! And don’t get me wrong, I still 100% do. But I never consciously thought about the significance of my own individual acts, and their connection to the health of our planet. I would bring my own shopping bags to Woolies, but wouldn’t hesitate to buy my brown rice pasta in plastic packaging, my apples packaged in packs of six, or all my fruit and veg in plastic bags.

Gradually, I started to realise how crazy it is that something we use for 10 minutes to eat our lunch with, like a plastic fork and knife, will last on the earth for hundreds and hundreds of years after we die. Single use and disposable plastics like bottles, cutlery, takeaway containers, bags, coffee cups, straws, milk cartons etc, have become so normal to us in our daily lives that it seemed almost impossible to me that we could ever find a way to live plastic free.

But, as I began learning more and more about how common plastic was in my own life, I started to become aware of the choices that I had the power to make, which could have a pretty significant impact on decreasing my environmental footprint. I shifted my mindset from thinking that my own individual actions couldn’t possibly make THAT big of an impact on our earth, to knowing that everything we do has some significance – and that’s how I discovered zero waste!

Living a ‘zero waste’ lifestyle basically means trying to limit the amount of waste we produce as consumers. This includes:

reducing food packaging
saying no to disposable plastics
composting old food scraps
making your own consumables, such bathroom products to limit product packaging
reusing reusing reusing

After discovering this amazing but slightly intimidating concept, I quickly found that living a zero waste lifestyle wasn’t as hard as I thought if its broken up into small, achievable steps.

I started to buy all my food like grains, nuts, seeds, pastas and beans in bulk at Alfalfa House and invested in a set of reusable produce bags. I stopped buying from Woolies and Coles and bought fruit and veg loose from markets and co-ops instead. I started composting all my food scraps. Gradually, I also began to make my own bathroom products like toothpaste (it’s surprisingly easy!). I stopped using takeaway containers and bought my own reusable cutlery with me when I went out to eat.

But I still have a long way to go, and I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination! I still haven’t found a way to buy frozen blueberries for making smoothies without plastic packaging, or any store that sells tofu in bulk. I’ve found that sometimes we do slip up – we find ourselves in a situation where we’ve forgotten our water bottle or our reusable cutlery, and that’s totally okay. What counts is being conscious and aware of our choices and making the right ones wherever possible.

Since going zero waste I’ve become more mindful; more mindful of what I buy, what I don’t buy, where I buy it, how I store things, etc. I really believe that if everyone was more conscious about their consumption of things like disposable plastics, it would change the way we consume. This small paradigm shift would end up having big impacts on rubbish in landfill, biodiversity killed by plastic pollution and the overall state of our environment.

And it’s definitely not easy either. It takes some thinking ahead and preparation. And a lot of people won’t understand what you’re doing or why. Someone remarked to me a couple of months ago that we should be focusing on the bigger things like lobbying for fossil fuel divestment and renewables instead of wasting our time on something that won’t make much of a difference. But we have to consider both approaches; when people dismiss little acts, I feel they are missing a big opportunity. This cemented my view that we can’t discount the small things; they all add up in the end whether we realise it or not.

Going zero waste allows me to live my values and my truth; it’s about being conscious and compassionate by taking responsibility for the health of our environment. And it’s something that everyone can do. It may seem daunting at first, but when you break it down into little steps, you realise that it really is super achievable.

Harmonise-me bliss balls

In addition to being an Alfalfa House volunteer, Clara Bitcon is a women’s health naturopath and natural fertility educator. Her natural medicine practice, Medi.atrix Women’s Wellness, provides insightful and empowering guidance for women who want to take back their health naturally (www.mediatrixwellness.com.au).

In this blog, Clara teaches us about the ingredients in bliss balls, and introduces us to her easy recipe.

Bliss balls are no new kid on the block, but I’d love to share with you my version. They’re a cinch to whip up, and you can make them in sizeable batches as they’ll keep for quite some time in the fridge (up to 6 weeks). They’re perfect for a quick snack, or if you feel like a treat but would rather not reach for the dessert or chocolate, these guys can very nicely satisfy the urge. Highly
recommended with a brew of green or tulsi tea.

Based on a simple recipe, these bliss balls are meant to be played around with it as much or as little as you like. I like to rotate the nut butter, powdered herbs and spices to make something unique each time. Some people like to add stimulating herbs like guarana, matcha or kola nut. I prefer to use nourishing and balancing herbs. This particular combination of cacao and maca are excellent nourishers of the hormone and stress systems. They are two plants that have a lot going on for them.

Cacao: Elevating & Calming
As the Aztecs say, cacao is a food of the gods (and I’d say the modern world would happily agree).Unlike the cocoa commonly used in chocolate, raw cacao powder is unroasted and unprocessed. Cacao is abundant in the muscle relaxing and mind-calming mineral magnesium. It also contains a range of compounds that have a blissy action on the mind and elevate our mood. If you’re feeling a bit blue or anxious, have a project that requires a lot of mental focus or experience PMS, these bliss balls will make a fine
companion.

Maca: Energy & Balance
Maca is a herb that comes from the Andes Mountains of Peru. It is a member of the cabbage family. Many plants in this family contain a group of compounds that assist the body to process environmental toxins and excess hormones. It has traditionally been eaten as an energy enhancing food. One legend tells how Inca warriors were fed Maca to increase their strength before going into battle. After a city was conquered, Maca was prohibited to protect women from the heightened sexual desires induced by its consumption. The amount in this recipe won’t be having quite this level of intensity, but will give you a nice energy lift.

Bliss balls ingredients

Makes about 10-12 bliss balls

1 cup nut butter (almond, tahini, cashew, brazil, sunflower or hemp are all good – if you can’t find the butter, process the nuts and add 1/4 cup of hemp seed or flax oil)
1/2 cup honey (local, raw & organic). If you are vegan, you can replace honey with maple syrup. You may need to add more powders to get the right consistency.
2 tablespoons of raw cacao powder
2 tablespoons of maca powder (organic)
1/2 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon and/or cardamom
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)
A couple of twists of sea, Celtic or Himalayan salt

Method

In a mixing bowl, combine the nut butter and honey and stir until smooth.
Add all the powders, spices and salt and mix.
The consistency should be thick enough to make into balls but not dry enough to feel crumbly. Play around with adding more powders or nut butter to get the consistency you need.
Roll into balls and roll in extra cacao powder or hemp seeds to cover. I like to store in a Tupperware contain and cover with extra cacao powder (you can use hemp seeds for this too). Keep in the fridge.
You can even throw a couple of these into a smoothie for a blissy herbal lift!

Sauerkraut: nourishing your inner-health

In this blog, Clara tells us about the wonders of sauerkraut, and treats us to a simple and tasty recipe.

Sauerkraut is ultimate gut supporting food. It’s a member of what I like to call ‘elemental basics’: ancestral foods that have been largely lost to modern living yet offer so much to our health. It’s brimming with beneficial bacterial and the cabbage itself is rich in a gut supporting protein called glutamine. You can add healing herbs and spices to support your body in whatever way it is needing. It is food that nourishes our internal soil; our microbiome.

The recipe below will create enough for about two large jars of sauerkraut. You can make it in larger batches too. Making your own is easy and makes eating it daily so much more affordable.

Materials

1 large bowl or food grade bucket
1 plate that snuggly fits the bowl/bucket
knife
pounding device (meat hammer, rolling pin, pestle etc.)

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage, red or green, shredded
good quality salt, such as Celtic or river salt

Optional extras

For calming the digestion: caraway seeds or fennel seeds and grated ginger, dill or fennel tops
For firing up the appetite: umeboshi plum paste
Anti-inflammatory ingredients: grated ginger and turmeric

Directions

Part 1: Prep the Cabbage

Boil some water and fill the bowl you are going to use to ferment the sauerkraut. After a few minutes, pour out water.

Place a couple of handfuls of shredded cabbage into the bowl. For every cup of cabbage, add two teaspoons of salt.

Pound well with a wooden pounder/meat hammer/rolling pin (anything that will serve the purpose of pounding!). You want to pound enough so that you bruise all their cell membranes and release their juices.

Add the next round of shredded cabbage and salt and repeat pounding. Continue these steps until you have used all your cabbage. African drumming music recommended for this part!

Part 2: Tuck it Away to Ferment

With a spatula, wipe down all the sides of the bowl. Find a plate that fits over the top of the sauerkraut – this is important because you want to create a completely oxygen free environment. If there are gaps around the side, the sauerkraut will rot rather than ferment.

Push the plate down with force, so that the fluid released from the cabbage rises above the plate. This will create a perfect seal.

If not enough juices are rising, either pound a bit more and try again. Or pour some boiled water over the plate to create the seal.

Place a heavy weight on top of the plate. As it ferments, more juices release, and you’ll notice the fluid level rise. This is very good. Wrap in a tea towel and set aside.

Part 3: Patience

Check on your kraut every few days. Don’t be alarmed if mould is forming in the liquid; because the vegetables are sealed off, it won’t affect them. Pour off the liquid, wipe down the sides and refill with freshly boiled water.

After 8 – 10 days your kraut should be ready. If you live in a cold climate, it may take longer. If you’re in the tropics, it may be shorter.

Holding plate down, pour off the liquid and have a taste, if it is not sour enough for you give it a couple more days.

Part 4: Bottle Up

When ready, spoon the sauerkraut into sterilised jars and cap. You can store these in the pantry for up to a year, but once you have opened them store in the fridge.

How to eat sauerkraut?

Traditionally sauerkraut was added as a side to most meals, especially if it contains meat. I like it on toasted sourdough, avocado and cracked pepper, in buddah bowls, on jacket baked potatoes or as a garnish to any Asian inspired dish. It’s versatile, so sneak it in in unexpected places.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/clarabitconnaturopathy
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mediatrixwellness

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