It’s like I’ve accidentally become healthy or something? As you know I’m veggie and mostly dairy free so for the protein I eat avocado, tofu, quinoa and humous, which just happen to be healthy choices. I’m lazy though and buy things pre-made or from takeaways – not good for health or budgetary reasons – so I jumped at the chance when Indigo Herbs offered to send me some of their organic ingredients.
Here’s what they have they say. “We specialise in superfoods, herbs and natural health ingredients. What we bring to you is a really broad range of excellent quality natural health and wellbeing products to include in your daily lifestyle, from breakfast, lunch and dinner, to everything in between.”
Organic Chia Seed Protein Powder for a green smoothie
Serves 1
Ingredients
5 grams (roughly) Organic Chia Seed Protein Powder
1 cup Coconut Milk (no fat)
2/3 cup Spinach
1/3 Salanova Red and Green ‘butter’ Lettuce (or more spinach instead)
3 Plump Semi Dried Apricots chopped
Method
Add a small amount of coconut milk to the protein powder and stir gently with a folk until mixed together, stop before it turns into a goopy ball! Add the rest of the coconut milk and whisk for 1 minute. Add the greens and the fruit and blitz until smooth. If consistency is too thick add a little filtered water and mix again until easily drinkable.
Verdict
I was pretty skeptical but I decided after the first few sips that I really liked the taste and the texture. The flavour of the greens balanced out the sweetness of the coconut milk and the apricots added a little tanginess. I drank this when I was hungry and feeling fatigued after my (simple/moderate) mid-day exercises and it gave me my energy back, plus I wasn’t peckish again until 3 hours later. I’d try 10g of protein powder if I had a really busy long afternoon ahead of me.
Organic Raw Almond Butter for a creamy stir fry sauce
Serves 1
Ingredients
1/2 can Full Fat Coconut Milk
3 tspn Almond Butter
Red Chilli Flakes/Hot sauce to taste
1 tspn of Tamari (wheat free soy sauce) or Soy Sauce
Method
On a low heat, stir together coconut milk and almond butter in a frying pan on a low heat. Add tamari/soy sauce stir. Add red chilli flakes or hot sauce, simmer constantly stirring until required consistency.
Verdict
The sauce was the perfect consistency and had a good depth of flavour. Perfect! I also love this on seeded toast for breakfast if I’m going out for the day, as it gives me energy for hours. The toast picture gives you the best idea of the butters consistency, also I greedily ate my stir fry and forgot to take a picture!
Organic Raw White Sesame Tahini to make hummus
I think the reason most people have heard of tahini is because it’s one of the main ingredients in humous and seeing as I’m ‘a humous monster’ according to the bloke, (I’m not, it’s just so handy to always have a pot in the fridge) I decided to make my own.
Amount 1 and a half ‘cups’ roughly
Ingredients
1 400g tin Cooked Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained with liquid set aside
1/4 cup of Chickpea Liquid
1/3 Cup of Raw White Sesame Tahini
1/2 teaspoon of Salt
1/2 rounded teaspoon of Garlic Paste
Freshly squeezed Lime Juice
Method
Chuck everything apart from the lime juice into a blender and blend like crazy! Add the lime juice to your taste and blend even more.
Verdict
I find a lot of shop bought humous to be either very bland or with so much flavouring that it tastes like something else entirely. This tasted like traditional hummus but the lime juice made it taste slightly sweeter than if I’d have used lemon. This is perfect if you like your hummus to have a fairly thick consistency.
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Hope this has given you some inspiration to try different things. Have you made any of these? How did they turn out?
The products in bold were gifted to me by Indigo Herbs. My opinion is as honest as ever!
Chrissie xx
Vamp It Up 