Wednesday 21 January 2015

Healthy Eating with a Side of Chocolate...


I've said it once, I'll say it again. My name is Annie and I am a chocoholic.

As the new year begins, so along with it comes the realm of resolutions and beginnings, promises of healthier eating, exercising 6 times a week with no alcohol in January, being more positive, saving more, spending less, eating more greens, eating less meat and getting hot. These resolutions usually last about the same time as it takes for someone to ask me in the bleak days of London January, whilst sitting at my desk, looking out the window into the greyness of St Paul's... Should we go for a glass of red?

The luxury of time. Such an abstract concept. Why should time be a luxury? I never feel like I have enough time. My nights are a constant battle, filled with all the activities I really do enjoy doing vs having time to not do all the things I enjoy. Downtime. Which means different things on different days. Tonight it meant going straight home after work, no yoga, no hiit, no football, no catchups. 

'You'll never find time for anything. If you want time, you have to make it....'

So in the abstractness of the evening, I decided to make myself some soup. Like chicken soup for the soul, except not, as of course, I'm trying to eat less meat. So instead it was roasted sweet potato, butternut squash, spinach and quinoa soup for a wintery January evening. It was definitely soul warming and soothing. Perfect with a side of chocolate. Abstract recipe below. 

So I did actually write a few things down for 2015, but none of the usual points listed above. All of the above will be a bonus in the quest for a year of difference, yet made with the same ingredients. Abit of being stirred, rising,  baked, shaken and consumed. Yes, all of the clichés.

It will be about balance, the Ha and the Tha and the enjoyment and indulgence with virtue and purity in the company of strangers and loved ones. It is continually cultivating this balance somehow, someway, somewhere....

Sweet potato, butternut squash, spinach and quinoa soup for the non-chicken soup drinkers.

Ingredients
1 sweet potato
1 butternut squash 
1 onion
Few cloves of garlic
Few handfuls of spinach
1 cup of cooked quinoa 
Vegetable stock

To garnish (optional)
Parsley
Chilli flakes
Pepper
Crumbed feta 

1. Chop sweet potato and butternut squash into small chunks, drizzle with some Olive oil and roast for about 30 minutes at 190' (a highish heat!)

2. Gently fry the onion and garlic

3. Add the roasted squash and sweet potato to the onions and fry again briefly, then add vegetable stock and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Leave to cool slightly.

4. Cook the quinoa separately

5. Purée the soup in a blender or with a hand blender then pour back into a saucepan.

6. Add the Spinach until it wilts.

7. You can either add quinoa to the pot or just add desired quantity to individual
Servings (which is what I did).

8. Garnish and drink up!

On another note, the greyness of St Paul's can be rather mesmerising.



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