1 December! I can smell Christmas in the air! There'll be lots of cooking, baking, eating and entertaining in the weeks to come, and I'll get so fat after all the Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year festivities! Holidays are so exciting with the promise of fun/ family/ food-filled days to come, and I think this is also a good time for me to launch a little project called, "Nourish with Five". This series of recipes will showcase some of the five-ingredient recipes that I make at home. I'll try to sneak some bakes under this category too, and hopefully, you guys will try some of these simple dishes and sweets during the holidays.
I decided to start this project because, as mentioned before, I have a five ingredients per dish guideline (not including the necessary oil and seasonings) when cooking. This is not to say that I never make a dish that requires more, but I go by this mantra 90% of the time. Streamlining the processes in cooking, and quoting Mr. Jamie Oliver, "stripping down recipes to their bare essentials", makes cooking more pleasurable, and saves me a lot of time. Perhaps some of you might think that using just five ingredients to create a tasty, satisfying and nourishing meal sounds too little, but I assure you, it's not.
Another decision I recently made, is to go vegetarian for all my meals except maybe dinner. I'll still be eating a limited amount of seafood, but for the most part, it'll be cheese, eggs, vegetables, fruit, carbs and the lot. I'm not doing this because I'm on some weight-loss program, or that I dislike the taste of chicken/ beef/ lamb/ pork/, etc. It's just the same reason why I've never taken shark's fin... I'm sick of the torture that animals have to go through for our pleasure. Yes, animals were initially meant for our consumption, and mankind supposedly has free reign over all livestock. But in biblical times, chickens weren't caged up so tightly that they trample over and kill one another, geese and ducks were not force-fed with metal tubes down their throats to abnormally fatten their livers, poultry weren't injected with hormones to force them to grow faster... and sadly, the list goes on. I'm not naively thinking that I have the power to change the world with my decisions, but I just can't live with myself supporting this cruelty anymore.
On a lighter note, here's a great tomato and bean recipe that is healthy, comforting, quick and easy to make and very economical. Fuzzy and I chose to eat it with some pan-fried barramundi (you could substitute for any white-fleshed fish) for lunch, and I'll have the left-overs with a toasted cheese sandwich tomorrow.
Tomato and Bean Stew
Ingredients:-
1 can of canellini beans, drained
1 can of diced tomatoes
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 big onion, diced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
water/ vegetable stock
salt and pepper, and optional dried herbs for seasoning
Method:-
1) In a small pot, sautee onions in olive oil till translucent.
2) Add celery and fry till slightly tender.
3) Mix in drained beans, and tinned tomatoes.
4) Add enough water/vegetable stock to cover all the ingredients, and bring the stew to a boil before turning the heat down to a slow simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and add dried herbs if you'd like.
5) Simmer for 1 hour.
6) Serve with fresh basil and a good glug of extra virgin olive oil. This makes a great dish on it's own with some crusty bread, or with some pan-fried fish/ chicken as a side.
Feeds two very hungry adults.
