The idea that FOOD MATTERS is the one simple idea that motivated us to start supernature. Sometimes this gets us into a little bother. Like Simon having to take extra time to break up our raisins because we asked the raisin man to send them without the oil that is normally sprayed on all raisins to keep them slippery and shiny.
We delight in the challenge of using only real food ingredients because as we became more conscious of what we ourselves were eating, we realised how hard it was to find products made of simple, natural ingredients and nothing else.
Being on a restricted diet, I would go to a shop or health store and see packages shining out at me with the words “NATURAL”, “HEALTHY” or “Free From” but then the dreaded moment arrives: the package flip. That moment when you pick up a delicious looking, “natural” bar and your eyes flicker across the wrapper searching for the ingredients list, first ingredient: check, second ingredient: check, third ingredient: check, … at this point it’s all looking good, the taste buds are starting to tingle, your mouth is beginning to water… And BAM, just when you want the writing to stop, you’re hit with those dreaded extras, those unnecessary add-ons, those unnatural, laboratory-constructed compounds that no one can quite pronounce.
Apart from the obvious like sugar & cane sugar (same thing really), which would have a firm “No” from my kinesiologist ringing in my ears; ingredients like emulsifiers (lecithin – would you like yours bleached or non bleachedJ), sucrose, maltitol syrup, xylitol, erythitol, anything ending in “ol” really if you love the little bugs who work so hard for us in our tummy. The list goes on. Added to this, over the years a system has evolved which allows the use of bleaches, solvents and other compounds to be used in making the “food” we eat, and yet they never make it to the ingredient list. The loose definition of “natural” means that natural flavours are combined with solvents to help them “spread”. This makes me wonder are they really that much different from artificial flavours?
Anyway, the truth is we’re not here to say what is good or bad, we’re simply here to explain why we chose to use “real food” ingredients. We figure if we don’t know what’s really in it then why would we eat them? You can debate the rights and wrongs of plenty of additives and preservatives so we figured instead let’s stick to FOOD, just food, that’s all.
On that note, we figured it would be fun this month to use this theme as our back drop to create some simple, real-food recipes that contain five or fewer ingredients. One of the perks of their few ingredients is that they are super quick and easy to make and therefore are perfect for this busier time of year as we all head back to work and college.
Without further ado, first up we have…
Cauliflower Couscous
- Chop up ½ a pepper, ½ an apple and add to a bowl
- Add a handful of pistachio nuts, and some chopped dates or raisins
- You can use coucous or cooked rice or whiz 2 cups of cauliflower in your food processor until you have a rice-like texture. If you don’t have a food processor you can just finely grate it.
- Squeeze some lemon juice and add some salt and pepper to season or simply add your favourite dressing.
Chocolate Log
- Add to a bowl and stir as you go:
- 6 tbl Nut butter (we like peanut butter)
- 3 tbl Honey or Maple Syrup
- 2 tbl Cacao Powder
- Add whatever nuts, raisins or dried fruit tickle your fancy
- Pop the mixture in a plastic Tupperware
- We like to sprinkle some of our Raspberry Chocolate Raisins on top
- Stick it in the freezer for a few hours
- Serve it from the freezer
We hope you find these recipes both easy and delicious which we find tends to be the perfect combo for those busy work days. You can check out our Cauliflower Couscous and Chocolate Log reels on our Instagram for a little demo and you can cook alongside us as we make our favourite Burrito filling and some other fun bits live at 1pm on October 1st!
See you there!
Love the supernature team xo