Workout Wednesday RECIPES: Healthy Homemade Houmous

In amongst your active lifestyles, it can be hard to take the time and imagination to concoct something tasty AND healthy. Luckily for you, Carmen Paddock has such a recipe right here for your pleasure.

No one can deny that houmous is a wonderful option for healthy snacking, especially for on-the-go student lifestyles. It is high in fibre and protein, making it filling fuel for daily activity or more intense exercise sessions. Since it can be a dip, sandwich or wrap filling, or side dish, it is incredibly versatile. And its slightly-tangy, slightly-nutty, but overall mild flavour allows for a wide range of inventive food combinations! Although relatively inexpensive in supermarkets, it’s even less expensive and almost as easy to whip up a batch at home. Having this tasty chickpea concoction in the refrigerator makes healthy snacking quick and convenient!

Image Credit: thecuriousbaker

There is a lot of flexibility in this recipe, so you can make it exactly to your personal taste. I would highly recommend tasting as you go along to ensure that the balance of tahini, lemon, and spices is to your liking.

Step 1: The Core Recipe

Two 400g cans of chickpeas (or roughly 200g dried chickpeas soaked overnight and boiled until soft)

4-8 Tbsp of the juice from the can (or boiling liquid)

6 tablespoons tahini (ground sesame seed paste) – adjust to taste

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice – adjust to taste

(Note: you can find tahini at Tesco and Sainsbury’s but it is much cheaper at two local places: Al-Baraka and its next-door neighbour, a Turkish international grocery store. Both are located on Sidwell Street across from the Odeon.)

– Drain chickpeas and place in mixing bowl. Mash with a potato masher and spoon until it begins to resemble a chunky spread or dip, adding the reserved liquid to make it smoother and thinner. (Alternately you could use a blender.)

– Add the tahini and lemon juice and continue mixing and mashing until everything is incorporated. The tahini and lemon juice amounts are rough – some people like lots in their houmous, and some people just like a little accompanying flavour – so adding a little bit at a time and tasting as you go is a good option. It is always best to operate on the principle that you cannot take the ingredient out, but you can add more of it in.

When everything is evenly combined, it is time for the next part.

Step 2: The Variations

Olive oil (no more than 2-3 tablespoons)

Garlic Powder

Cumin

Chili powder

Fresh coriander

Here’s where the fun begins! You can play around with the spices and combinations to create a dish exactly to your liking! The first three ingredients are most commonly used, so I would recommend starting with those to recreate the familiar flavour. Again, I would recommend adjusting all amounts to taste.

Olive oil is often added to enhance the texture, but if you are watching fat and calories you can cut it out entirely with no major effect on the taste. Alternately, if serving as a dip you can drizzle a couple teaspoons over the top, which allows for beautiful presentation, a bit of olive oil flavour, and less fat!

If you like some spice, a bit of chili powder is an excellent option, and fresh coriander leaves can be sprinkled on top or mixed in.

Step 3: Enjoy!

Carmen Paddock

December New Releases

It’s that time of year again when the fires are lit, turkeys are roasted and people everywhere come together to celebrate, be merry and relax after a hard year’s work. That is, unless you’re a student with looming January exams. But if you do find a spare moment to kick up your feet with a good book, December has a diverse range of escapist offerings.

Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney come together once more to give fans of the Jack Ryan series the next installment. This time, Threat Vector (6 Dec) raises the bar. For those who had become tired of Clancy’s perhaps predictable and slightly unfashionable style, the story is updated and rejuvenated as an exciting new plot line fails to disappoint. Whilst tales of international conflict are easy to find, this novel offers cyberspace as a new battle arena leading the reader to consider how much they really know about their country and become lost in questions of “what if?”

Ketchup Clouds (27 Dec) by Annabel Pitcher follows the letters of fifteen-year-old Zoe who begins writing to Stuart Harris. However these are not ordinary letters; Stuart is awaiting his death sentence in Texas and Zoe reveals that she too is guilty of the crime of murder. Touching and funny in equal measures, the book is intended for teens and young adults but provided that you’re willing to rewind a few years and remind yourself of the unsavoury experience that is adolescence, you should be able to lose yourself in the angst, first love and poor behavioural choices that accompany this transitory life stage.

Next, Tangle of Need (13 Dec) is the next stage for all of those who loved Twilight and Fifty Shades (definitely not me…) The list of books already published in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling Series is as extensive as the character list, offering the reader a real chance for getting lost in an intricate other world. Not for the prudish or faint-hearted, the story centres around lust. The sex scenes make Fifty Shades look like the chaste first Twilight books so if E.L James’ offerings weren’t quite hitting your spot, maybe you’ll be better, uh, pleased by this tangle of fantasy and wolf relationships. Whilst the content might be geared towards an older Twilight-fan, don’t expect a literary masterpiece but this is definitely one for fans of Jacob and Christian.

Now as sceptical as I am about the savoury value of any meal that claims to be low-fat, the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook (21 Dec) may be the one to finally drag me away from Nigella’s lard-soaked recipes. Conveniently released just before Christmas, this brightly coloured tome will wait patiently on your shelf during the festive consuming before easing you into a January diet which will be altogether rather more pleasant than expected. For me, a dubious dip into the easy-to-follow pages turned into an engrossed study of the plentiful recipes and delicious accompanying photographs. It even has additional health tips to accompany meals and with sections catering to all of your gastronomic needs from basics to brunches, starters to cakes and beef to vegetarian, this can’t fail to please anyone, dieting or not.

Finally, Graham Hurley’s Western Approaches (27 Dec) is a great read for any Exeter resident. Even if you’re not normally one for crime novels, the Devon location makes this story easy to imagine and fantastic for these cold winter nights. This is the first in the Jimmy Suttle series meaning that anyone can pick it up without having to worry about missing important elements of the plot. Although it isn’t set in our city, Exeter does get mentioned (a grand total of 34 times, I might add) and anyone who has ventured onto the lonely plains of Dartmoor and Exmoor will be able to recognise the haunting atmosphere of our timeless countryside as Suttle begins to wonder if he’s reached his limit.

By Lucy Porter – New Releases Reporter
Ed. by Georgina Holland – Exeposé Online Books Editor

Garlicky Goaty Mushrooms on Toast

 

The European produce for sale at the Christmas market on Cathedral Green has been admired by pretty much everyone I know who’s traipsed through town in search of festive cheer. Here’s my recipe for a winter warmer lunch using the goats cheese from the French cheese stall. Cheap, tasty and done in under ten minutes, this indulgent snack is the perfect pick me up during deadline stress.

Ingredients:

Knob of butter

One clove of garlic

One teaspoon of thyme

One handful of mushrooms

Black pepper

Toasted bread (you can go all out with some posh ciabatta, but it’s fine to stick to sliced!)

Goats cheese – we used some from the French stall in the market, where you can get goat cheese, a mild brie like cheese and a camembert for £5!

Equipment:

Toaster or grill

Small sharp knife

Chopping board

Small sauce pan

What you do:

Get your goats cheese out of the fridge for fifteen minutes before you start – you want it to just have begun going gooey! This makes it easier to spread later on.

Decide how much bread you’re going to eat – just how hungry are you?

Stick your bread under the grill or in the toaster until it’s nicely golden and crispy.

While your bread is toasting, melt the butter in the saucepan and chop up your garlic into teeny tiny pieces.

Add to the melted butter along with the thyme and cook on a low to medium heat.

The toast should be done now – get it out and leave it to cool. Try and stand it up if you can to stop it going soggy.

Cut the mushrooms in half and then slice. Turn up the heat to medium and add to the gorgeous garlicky buttery goodness. Stir and season with black pepper to your tasting.

Cut up the goat cheese and spread onto the cooled toast in a thick layer, making sure not to forget the edges!

Return to your mushrooms. Give them a stir, they should be squishy by now and smelling lovely.

Cut your cheesy toasted bread into rectangles for ease of eating.

Spoon those lovely unctuous mushrooms on top and then dig in!

 

Easy peasy!

This goaty goodness is also great as a starter at a dinner party with your friends / flatmates or your other half. After all, if you’re not the only one eating garlic then it doesn’t matter if your breath smells!

 

By Kitty Howie