Super Grains, Nuts & Seeds: Truly modern recipes for spelt, almonds, quinoa & more

By Renée Elliott

Grains, nuts and seeds are increasingly popular as part of a balanced, healthy diet. As vegetarian and vegan diets rise in popularity, they are readily recognised as excellent sources of protein and carbohydrate.

Including a comprehensive guide to grains, nuts and seeds, this exhaustive volume will also cover all you need to know to buy, prepare, cook and store your superfoods, including soaking, sprouting and growing at home.

Over 50 recipes are divided into breakfasts, small bites, small dishes, big dishes and sweet treats & bakes. Renée Elliott has collected a mouthwatering range of recipes that are truly international in flavour whilst also covering the myriad health benefits of each ingredient.

Beautifully packaged and lavishly illustrated with beautiful photography, this pocket-sized volume is an exhaustive guide to everything you need to know about grains, nuts and seeds.

Other titles in this series include: Super Root Spices and Super Pulses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Feb 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781911641186

Renée Elliott

Renée Elliott is an entrepreneur and organic pioneer, founding Planet Organic, the UK’s first organic supermarket, in 1995. Determined to change food culture, her mission is to promote health in the community. Renée is serving her sixteenth year as a Trustee of the Soil Association, the UK’s largest organic certifier, and is on the Catering Mark Standards Committee, working on the independent certification of food in nurseries, schools, universities, workplaces, restaurants, hospitals and care homes. Renée enjoys mentoring entrepreneurs, teaching healthy baking classes and leading inspirational seminars. A mother of three, she has written two books on weaning babies and feeding families. Renée lives with her family in rural East Sussex.

Book preview

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Introduction:

My Mission

Eat Foods Whole

Eat Organic

About This Book

Soaking & Sprouting

Grains

Nuts

Seeds

Recipes

Breakfasts

Small Bites

Small Dishes

Big Dishes

Sweet Treats & Bakes

Index

Acknowledgements

Introduction

This message in this book is if you’re eating grains, it is better to eat them whole and best to eat them soaked. If you’re not eating many nuts and seeds, it’s good to eat more of them, better to eat them raw and best to eat them soaked. And it always makes sense to choose organic when you can. Instead of covering all grains, nuts and seeds, the focus here is best in class plus information on how to prepare and eat these nourishing ingredients.

My Mission

Having studied health and nutrition since 1982, I have concluded that many of the illnesses that plague us today, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease in all of its forms, are the result of poor eating habits. Most of what I do fits my mission: ‘To promote health in the community’. I have been on that mission publicly since 1995, but privately it’s motivated me for a great deal longer, probably even through my childhood and education. I opened Planet Organic in November 1995 as an antidote to conventional supermarkets: to provide the best-quality food and give people the choice of health.

Fast-forward to June 2006, when I made a new friend named Allison. As an American transplanted to London, she was already a shopper at Planet Organic. Alison, said, ‘I stand there staring at barley on the Planet Organic shelf. I know I should eat it, but I’m not sure what is the best way to cook it.’

Eating well is so unavoidably important. My progress on this path has taken time and thoughtfulness. A major turning point for me came when I was pregnant and read in a pregnancy book to make every mouthful count. The book advised me to have one little treat a week like a wholegrain carrot muffin and one big treat a month like a honking piece of cake. That made so much sense to me that I concluded that every mouthful should always count.

Eat Foods Whole

I have a passion for eating foods whole. The more you take off, take out and process food, the less nutritionally valuable it is. I don’t believe in calorie counting or portion pondering. I do believe in buying the best ingredients and eating as wide a range of foods as possible.

•  Eat whole grains whenever you can and avoid white-sugar and white-flour products like pasta, bread and biscuits.

•  Soak nuts and seeds, eat raw and eat nuts with their skins on.

•  Soak grains before cooking (see here).

•  Eat some foods raw, eat some cooked. Soak some. Ferment some. Balance whole grains with protein, vegetables and oil/fat.

Eat Organic

Organic food is grown and processed without the use of agricultural chemicals and artificial additives. Chemical residues used in farming concentrate in the outer husks of food, so choosing organic is particularly important when eating wholegrains, nuts and seeds. No other food has higher amounts of beneficial minerals, vitamins and amino acids than organic food and, beacuse it is farmed responsibly, we can eat healthily and live in balance with our environment.

About This Book

This book is not meant to be an encyclopaedia of all grains, nuts and seeds. Instead, I have chosen foods that are best for you and highlighted the main nutritional benefit of each one. Soaking grains, nuts and seeds is an old tradition that has been coming back into new thinking. There is still research to be done and that research may change some of the details of the processes involved. What I have set out in this book is considered best practice at time of printing.

Soaking & Sprouting

Foods in their whole state are nutritionally superior. But when it comes to grains, nuts and seeds, they are best for you after soaking. And even better if you sprout them. Nuts and seeds are best eaten raw.

Grains, nuts and seeds all have two things in common that make it hard for us to digest them and access the full spectrum of nutrition that they offer. Firstly, they have phytic acid in their outer husk which binds with calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc in our large intestine, meaning we don’t absorb them. And secondly, they contain enzyme inhibitors to prevent sprouting at the wrong time, which can neutralize important enzymes in our digestive tract. To neutralize both of these, you need to soak grains, nuts and seeds.

The basic principle is that you soak grains in acidulated water – water mixed with either yogurt, kefir or lemon juice (if you are dairy-free) so that enzymes, lactobacilli and other beneficial organisms can do their job. For soaking grains, see here.

Soak nuts and seeds in salted water and then store in the fridge for a few days, or crisp in a low oven or dehydrator to store for longer. For soaking nuts, see here; for seeds, see here.

The soaking process also ‘activates’ the little powerhouse inside of each grain, nut or seed, so soaking achieves the following:

•  neutralizes phytic acid

•  neutralizes enzyme inhibitors

•  increases helpful enzymes

•  increases vitamins, particularly B vitamins

Further research into this principle may uncover different techniques in the future, but for now, this seems to be best practice. It’s not something to stress about though if there isn’t time. It is a smart goal and eating better is a journey.

Sprouting

Sprouting grains, nuts and seeds takes them a step further. To sprout any grain, nut or seed follow the same process of soaking, rinsing and growing. The only variable is the amount of time it takes for some foods to sprout. Sprouting jars are excellent for this, but you can use a regular jar with a colander for draining.

Here’s how:

•  put about one-third grain, nut or seed in a Mason-size jar

•  fill to the top with filtered water

•  soak overnight

•  the next morning, pour off the water

•  fill the jar again, pour off the water and drain in a colander

•  rinse at least twice a day – more if you are able

•  sprouts will be ready in 1–4 days

Rinse the sprouts thoroughly and let them drain in a colander until they are fairly dry. Then store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It is not necessary (and is difficult) to sprout linseed, which becomes too mucilaginous to rinse. Nuts will sprout, except for pecans and walnuts, which should be soaked as on here. Grains will sprout, except for oats, because they have been removed from their outer hull. Sprouted grains are best if lightly steamed.

Sprouting does the following:

•  neutralizes phytic acid

•  neutralizes enzyme inhibitors

•  increases helpful enzymes

•  increases vitamins, particularly B2, B5, B6 and beta-carotene

•  increases vitamin C

•  breaks down complex sugars in beans and legumes that cause wind

GRAINS

Cereal grains and pseudocereals are the major source of