The Beauty of A Whole Grain or Pulse Template Salad

TOMATO MAIN COURSE WHOLE GRAIN OR PULSE TEMPLATE SALAD

This flexible dish has become a firm favourite for packed lunches and main meal salads in our house. This is one of my 'template' recipes - recipes which can be used as a template for a variety of versions - in this case made with your choice of whole grain or pulse. Recipe for the Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce called for in this salad, provided below, or buy a good quality ready made one.

How to tell if its a good quality tomato sauce you are buying? If it is, there won't be added sugar or other sweeteners, and neither will there be artificial colorants or flavorants.

Prep before the time: Pre-soak whole grain or pulse, then cook till tender but not soggy

Cook Time: None

Prep time: 5 to 10mins

Ingredients

Olive oil to taste – approx. ¼ to ½ cup

1-2 cups slow cooker tomato sauce, according to taste (or use a good bought version)

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed (optional)

1 cup (or 40g) fresh coriander leaf, roughly chopped (or basil or…..)

1 green chilli, sliced (optional)

3-4 cups cooked whole grain or pulse (1½-2 cups dry: Notes below for proper preparation)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Extra Toppings: eg feta, crumbled, olives

Extra fresh green herbs for garnishing, (optional), to taste

Method

Place the first 7 ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine

Adjust flavours and textures if needed

Add toppings if using

Notes: General

• Key to the delicious more-ishness of these salads is to ensure that when you cook the whole grains or pulses, they are cooked till tender but not soggy.

• Almost any whole grain (eg sorghum, pearl barley, brown rice, stampkoring) or pulse (eg chick peas, lentils, dried beans) can be used in this recipe

• Chick peas used in the photo below

• Making ahead is a bonus – flavours develop and meld :)

Notes on Properly Preparing Pulses and Whole Grains:

Pulses are dried beans, peas and lentils

Whole grains are the whole groats (or kernels) of quinoa, millet, barley, brown rice etc

Properly prepared pulses (PPPs) and properly prepared whole grains (PPWGs) are fundamental to good health and longevity! :)

This is because they are filled to the brim with fibre and phytonutrients crucial for protecting us from disease and premature aging. However, they have a dark side too: if not properly prepared before we eat them, they also have substances known as anti-nutrients or anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) which can wreck havoc with our health.

So to obtain the advantages and avoid the disadvantages, simply follow these three simple steps:

Easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Soak overnight/24hrs

2. Decant, rinse

3. Boil or simmer in fresh, clean water till tender.

For Pulses, it is important to remember this:

1. Pulses require an initial 10mins rapid boil to destroy an enzyme which acts as an anti-nutrient, impairing digestion and potentially causing bloating and gut pain

2. After this initial 10min rapid boil, reduce temperature and allow to simmer gently till tender

3. If necessary, to assist with softening (eg chick peas), add aromatic/digestive herbs to the simmer water (eg stem ginger, whole clove garlic, dandelion leaf, cardamom pod, bay leaves, hing/asafoetida, kombu etc). 'Helper herbs' can shorten cooking time for chick peas to a total of 20mins!

4. Sorghum takes a while to soften! Let it simmer gently until it does – approx. 1hr, even with helper herbs.

WHAT MAKES THIS DISH SPECIAL?

Chock full of easy on-the-digestion fibre – so important for protecting from colon cancer, as well as being chock full of the tumour preventing phytonutrient, lycopene, present in tomatoes.

© Dr Karen Morris

SLOW COOKED TOMATO SAUCE: for slow cookers, stove tops or ovens!

This sauce is 99% hands off: it cooks while you get on with your life – or sleep, in the case of slow cooker users – and produces a delicious, rich sauce full of complex umami flavours. It happens to also be a virtual anti-aging therapy (see ‘What Makes This Sauce Special?’ below), so this is really a wonderful kitchen standby for every home (and a kitchen staple in mine). Tomatoes can play such a valuable role in flavour and health so if you don’t have time to make it, a good store-bought bottled tomato sauce is next best.

How to tell if store-bought tomato sauce is good quality? A good one will have no added sugar and no artificial colorants, flavorants or preservatives.

Try to always have a bottle or two on hand in your kitchen, whether home-made or store-bought.

Prep before the time: None

Prep Time: 10mins max

Passive (but no Active) Cook time: (Length of cooking time dependent on how concentrated you want the sauce)

For Slow Cooker: Between 8hrs and 24hrs – also depends on slow cooker

For Stove Top: Between 3hrs and 6hrs – also depends on size/shape of pot (the shallower and wider - the quicker the sauce is produced)

For Oven: @ 180ºC, between ½hr and 2hrs – also depends on how large the tomatoes

Ingredients

2kgs whole fresh tomatoes (approx. 7 to 8 cups when halved)

2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Herb & Spice Options: Choose between, or use them all: fresh green leafy herbs such as basil, rosemary, thyme and/or ground spices such as cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika. Quantities to taste (I use 1 to 2 tablespoons of a variety of ground spices – eg my Holy Quadrinity Blend - post to follow).

Method

1. Halve tomatoes, add into slow cooker or a large pot, replace lid and switch heat on (on high in slow cooker, but low heat on stove top). For oven baked version: place on a large, flat oven tray.

2. No added water is required if using slow cooker or oven, but if using stove top, a little may be required at first.

3. Break tomatoes up once soft enough. I use a potato masher.

4. Once this is done, for slow cooker or stove top: remove lid, leaving on high in slow cooker but on low if using stove top. Removing lid allows water content to evaporate and concentrates texture, flavour and colour. Return to oven if using the oven baked method.

5. I like to leave the sauce until fairly well reduced so that it can be used on pizzas without making the bases soggy. In my slow cooker (a vintage model) this takes approx. 18hrs. Today’s slow cookers are hotter and thus quicker – and so would take between 8 and 12hrs. On the stove top: 3-6hrs. In the oven: ½hr to 2hrs.

6. Once the consistency is as you desire, add olive oil, salt and whichever herbs and/or spices you choose. If you have used the oven method, at this point it’s best to transfer to a pot on the stove. Replace lid and leave at very gentle heat for between 15mins and ½hr. This allows the heat and oils to activate the spices and the lid retains the volatile oils of the herbs and spices.

7. After approx. ½hr, switch off, add freshly ground black pepper and allow to cool.

8. Decant into glass bottles.

Notes

1. I leave one bottle in my fridge and freeze the rest – taking a frozen one out to defrost just before the bottle in the fridge has been used up – as I say – it’s a kitchen staple for us.

2. If they are available, Italian plum tomatoes, with their strong, sweet flavour, are a good choice for this sauce, but any tomato will work (big, small, orange or red). I choose the cheapest, seasonal tomatoes.

3. The more water content is allowed to evaporate out, the more the tomato sauce becomes tomato paste.

4. Having a bottle of this sauce on hand is so valuable for adding a flavour and nutrient punch to pizza, bolognaise sauce, salads, sandwiches, soups and casseroles.

WHAT MAKES THIS SAUCE SPECIAL?

1. Your own tomato sauce: pure, simple, easy! No unwanted ingredients eg sugar, preservatives and artificial flavours (and no pureeing necessary – less labour and washing up).

2. Tomatoes contain lycopene (prevents tumours) and spices contain anti-aging/longevity properties. The heat of the cooking increases the availability of the lycopene to our body, and the same is true for the spices.

3. Our bodies need a good fat or oil in order to be able to make use of the lycopene and the spices – so the addition of the olive oil (or other good oil) is important. ©Using black pepper helps our body to make the best use of the phytonutrients in many spices – and is best added at end.

© Dr Karen Morris

This recipe makes a goodly batch. Here I froze most of the batch (you can see the olive oil marbling in the frozen bottle) and what could not fit I popped into a little bottle for keeping in the fridge.