Spinach for Africa!

We have a tiny veggie patch that is blessed with an abundance of Swiss chard, commonly known as 'spinach' to us South Africans. From a patch of about one square meter in size we grow enough to last us all year long and eat from it at least three times a week!



Here is my very, very spinachy muffin recipe. It's a firm favourite in our house :-)

Adeline's Popeye Spinach Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

2 Cups Cake Flour

10 ml Baking powder

5 ml Salt

Smoked paprika,  approx 4 shakes

Leaves of a few thyme sprigs

2 Eggs

3/4 Cup milk

1/2 Cup Sunflower or Canola oil

1 Cup Feta chopped in small blocks. Use a firm feta that will not melt away, like Simonsberg.

2 Cups of Spinach. Remove stalks, chop and compress in cup

Directions

Mix dry ingredients.

Add feta, spinach and thyme and make sure you coat it with the flour mixture.

Add wet ingredients.

Mix with spoon until combined.

Spoon into muffin tins.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown at 175◦C in a thermo fan oven or 180◦C in a normal oven.


Savoury muffins always taste better a few hours after coming out the oven, or sometimes even the following day, so allow for the flavours to mingle and get to know each other!

I like the feta surprise with every bite, so don't make the feta pieces too small, not less than 5 mm pieces will do. On the other hand if the pieces are to big the flavours won't mingle.

Swiss chard is packed with Vitamin A,K and C and is a good source of  iron, potassium, magnesium and  fibre.

So start making your tasty healthy muffins now!

Healthy Lunch Box In Less Than 7 Minutes

I like to keep a few ingredients in my kitchen to quickly make a lunchbox meal for work. That's to keep myself from eating junk food at work, which inevitably happens when I don't take a lunchbox to the office. One of my favourites is a delicious, easy-to-prepare chickpea salad that's also a healthy and filling meal.

It's so quick to make you can prepare it before you leave home in the morning -  it takes less than 7 minutes to make!

Healthy Crunchy Chickpea Salad

Chickpea salad

These measurements makes enough salad for two people, so you can share it with a colleague or keep half for a late-afternoon snack.

Ingredients:

The ingredients

Salad:

2 Cups of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 Red onion, very finely sliced
1 Bunch of chopped coriander leaves
1 Red pepper, thinly sliced
1 Avocado, cubed

Finely sliced red onion

 

Salad dressing:

60 ml Extra virgin olive oil
20 ml White balsamic vinegar
40 ml Sweet chilli sauce
2 pinches of Salt
2 pinches of Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Mix the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
Add all the ingredients of the salad dressing to a small jar. 
Close the jar lid securely and shake vigorously until the ingredients emulsify (turn cloudy).
Taste  the salad dressing; if it's too sweet, add more salt, pepper and vinegar; if it's too sour add more sweet chilli sauce and shake again.

Pour the salad dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly. Be generous with the salad dressing, but do not let the salad swim in it. The secret to a really tasty salad is to get the salad dressing tasting good, and to mix in just the right amount into the salad.

Ingredients for the salad dressing poured in a jar

The salad keeps well overnight in the fridge, so if you're not a morning person like me, make it the night before - no scrambling in the morning to try and make your lunch!

But be careful! Because the salad's so yummy, you may just end up eating it as a midnight snack!

Chickpea facts:

Chickpeas are packed with protein, essential vitamins, minerals and iron. It's a good source of fibre and it is known to lower blood cholesterol.

People have been eating chickpeas for well over four thousand years - archaeological signs indicating that chickpeas were part of their diet have been found in Israel and Turkey. In ancient times chickpeas were believed to contain many medicinal uses, such as assisting in milk production for the lactating mother and increasing virility in men.

Today India is the biggest producer of chickpeas. It grows on small shrubs with pods housing one to two chickpeas each. There are different shapes, sizes and colours of chickpeas, but the most commonly known are the white (light brown) chickpea.

You can use tinned chickpeas for the salad, but beware these may contain excessive salt and preservatives, and of course are a bit more expensive than ordinary chick peas. I prefer buying and cooking dried chickpeas in bulk and keep it in the freezer in small containers that I defrost in the fridge the day before use.

Other names for chickpeas:

Ceci - Italian
Kekerertjies - Afrikaans
Garbanzo - Spanish