Chocolate and Beetroot Don’t Go!

Hate it or love it : Beetroot!

I used to hate it but now I love it. However, there is a place for beetroot and it’s not in chocolate cake. Chocolate doesn’t need beetroot and beetroot doesn’t need chocolate! My children are still reeling from the horror of tasting the said cake and are accusing me of not mentioning there was a vegetable in it – it MAY have slipped my mind! So, here are some recipes that don’t ‘hide’ the beetroot.

Why it’s good for you

Beetroot is a good dietary source of betaine and folate. Together these two nutrients work synergistically to reduce potentially toxic levels of homocysteine (a naturally occuring amino acid that can be harmful to blood vessels and, thereby, contributing to the development of heart disease, stroke and dementia).

Since beetroot is high in beta carotene and iron, it can help prevent anaemia especially in people who follow a vegetarian diet.

Warm beetroot, spinach and shallot salad
250g shallots
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Bunch of small raw beetroots, leaves reserved to serve
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
75g walnut pieces
350g baby spinach, washed and dried
2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced
For the pink peppercorn dressing
1 tsp dried pink peppercorns
1 tbsp cider vinegar
5 tbsp medium olive oil

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan170°C/ gas 5. Toss the shallots with half the oil and a sprinkling of sea salt in a roasting tin and roast for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the beetroots into a saucepan of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until just cooked, then drain and pop out of their skins.
After 30 minutes, add the garlic to the roasting shallots, drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil and roast for a further 10 minutes. Add the beetroots and walnuts, toss to coat in the oil and roast until the garlic is golden – a further 5-10 minutes.
Put the spinach in a large salad bowl and scatter with the fennel.
To make the dressing, crush the peppercorns and a little salt, and mix in the vinegar. Whisk in the olive oil a little at a time.
Spoon the shallots, garlic, walnuts and beetroots onto the spinach and fennel, and pour over the dressing. Add the beetroot leaves, toss everything well and serve warm.

Potato pancakes with spicy veg
500g cooked beetroot
2 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
125g honey or Agave syrup
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Big handful baby spinach
1 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
For the pancakes:
700g floury potatoes
100g buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
400ml milk (soya or oat milk are OK too)
4 large free-range eggs
Butter, for frying

For the pancakes, cook the potatoes in their skins in a pan of boiling water, until tender. Drain and, when cool enough to handle, peel and pass through a potato ricer (or sieve) into a bowl. Add the flour and baking powder and season well. Add the milk, a little at a time, stirring to combine, then whisk in the eggs to make a thick batter. If you think the batter is too thick (all depends on the size of the eggs), add a little water.
Heat some oil in a 20cm frying pan over a medium-high heat and spoon in 2 large, heaped spoonfuls of the batter. Tilt the pan to spread the mixture over the pan. Cook for about 1 minute, or until the mixture bubbles up, then turn the pancake and cook for a further minute on the other side.
Remove from the pan and keep warm while cooking the rest of the pancakes, lightly greasing the pan with a little oil between each one.
For the filling, cut the beetroot into wedges. Heat the oil and butter in a pan until the butter begins to foam, then add the beetroot. Cook without stirring for 2 minutes, then toss the beetroot in the butter and oil.
Add the honey or Agave and stir to coat the beetroot. Add the vinegar, nutmeg and seasoning, and cook for a couple of minutes, then stir in the spinach and pine nuts. Spoon some filling on to each pancake. You can serve with a little bowl of natural yoghurt.

Till next month, with love
Maria

Life is a Minestrone

Wow it’s February already!

Although the first signs of Spring are everywhere, the weather is still chilly and I’ve met a few people who are suffering from colds and coughs. In fact, I am at home today with my daughter, Rosa, who is complaining of a sore throat and feeling unwell.

When I was ill as a child (actually, also as an adult), my Mother would roll up her sleeves, get into the kitchen and start chopping vegetables and chicken to make some minestrone. I would usually complain as it wasn’t my favourite meal. But it’s hard to say no to a vociferous Italian Mother especially when she wants you to eat! If I really couldn’t stomach it, she would encourage me to drink just the minestrone liquid.

Years later, when studying nutritional medicine, I realised my Mother intuitively knew something about healing foods. I learnt how nutritious and healing a chicken minestrone, soup or broth can be:

- stocks and broths are especially beneficial for people who have intestinal problems e.g. allergies because they are very high in nutrients and the gastrointestinal tract can absorb them without having do a lot of work. Stocks and broths contain colloids which are hydrophilic (water loving) thus making them easier to digest.

- chicken contains an amino acid called cysteine, a substance released when you make the soup. This amino acid is similar to the drug acetylcysteine, which is prescribed by doctors to patients with bronchitis. It thins the mucus in the lungs, making it easier to cough out. And hot chicken vapors have been proven more effective than hot water vapors in clearing out the cold in your nose.

- several studies have shown chicken soup as a “relief” for the common cold, not a “cure.” All research agrees that the soup helps break up congestion and eases the flow of nasal secretions. In addition, many say it also inhibits the white blood cells that trigger the inflammatory response (causing sore throats and the production of phlegm).

- gelatine, the odourless, tasteless substance extracted by boiling bones, animal tissues excellent source of minerals, including iodine, chloride, sodium, magnesium and potassium.

- onions, another chicken minestrone regular, contains quercetin, a powerful anti-oxidant that is also a natural anti-histamine, and anti-inflammatory.

As you can probably guess, the recipe this month is minestrone. I’ve chosen Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe because it’s the quickest, easiest and tastes good. My Mother’s recipe is a great deal more laboured and I am happy to forward it. Just send me an email.

Serves 4-6
1.5 ltres water
150g carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium sized onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
150g parsnips, peeled, cores removed and diced
1/4 savor or other green cabbage, stalks removed, finely shredded
2-4 chicken joints (with skin and bones on)
Handful of flat-leaf parsley
Salt and black pepper

If you have other vegetables in the fridge to use up, then add them too. Minestrone is not an exact science.

Bring the water to a gentle simmer in a large saucepan. Add all the vegetables, parsley and chicken but not the cabbage. Simmer gently for about an hour. Remove the chicken joints and remove the meat from the bone. Discard skin and bone. Shred the chicken and return to the saucepan with the cabbage. Cook for another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Good served with a few shavings of parmesan.

If you add the following ingredients to the above, you will be making a Thai version which is also delicious.

- stick of lemongrass, crushed to release the flavour
- zest and juice of half a lime
- tin of coconut milk
- 1 red chilli pepper, chopped
- little knob of grated ginger
- handful of chopped coriander

Must roll my sleeves up and make some minestrone for my lovely Rosa.

I am lucky to have a sister-in-law who is completely on my wave-length and a good friend. She lives in Paris, loves cooking and, eating fresh and delicious food. She recently sent me a link to author, Michael Pollan’s, Food Rules. The word “rules” was off-putting but having read them, I totally agree.

In a world where there is so much contractictory information about what to eat, this is simple, common-sense advice.

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, “What are those things doing there?”
2. It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language (think big Mag, Cheetos or Pringles!)
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes off.
4. Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. There are exceptions – honey – but as a rule, things like Twiglets that never go off aren’t food.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. Always leave the table a little hungry. Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. In German culture they say, ‘Tie off the sack before it’s full.’
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It’s a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love.
7. Don’t buy food where you buy your petrol. 20% of food is mindlessly eaten in the car.
8. Avoid food products that contain high-fructose corn syrup. Not only does it create fatty deposits in the liver, it is a sign that a product has been highly processed.

World Book Night
You may have heard about this initiative to get us reading a bit more. It’s being organised by publishers, libraries etc and they are giving away 40,000 copies of a specially selected range of 25 books. I applied to be one of the ‘givers’ for the Seamus Heaney Selected Poems and, I am delighted to say, that I have been chosen. Next week I will be receiving 48 copies to give to people who may enjoy reading his poems.

Seamus Heaney’s poems are beautiful and affecting. They lift me out of the mundane and make the hairs on my arms stand on end!

If you would like to receive a copy of his Specially Selected poems, please emal me.

If you know of anyone who would like to receive my newsletter, please forward their email address to:
mariabez@o2.co.uk.

Hello and Happy 2011.

There’s a special energy at the beginning of a new year that makes me feel like want to set the world on fire. I want to start new projects, learn something new, change old habits, be nicer etc etc.

I’ve been thinking about some of the silly resolutions that I have made in the past and how I rarely keep them. I remember once stating that I was going to tone up my bottom via daily exercises (silly because I was in my teens and it was probably perfect then!). One January I pledged to go on a month’s brown rice and vegetable fast. This caused me the most awful detox symptoms including a pusy rash all over my face. Years later when I met my husband-to-be he commented that I frowned alot – obviously it was love at first sight. That year I made a resolution to stop frowning and to smile more. It didn’t last. Mostly because I felt weird and probably looked weird.

Last year I didn’t set any resolutions. My Mother died on Christmas Day from an unexpected and short illness and, obviously, my mindset was not in the usual place. Although I wasn’t of a mind to make resolutions, in a manner of speaking I did, but I saw them more as survival tactics to help me cope. I tried a few things out but the following is a shortlist of things that made the biggest difference to my wellbeing.

If you don’t like resolutions but would like to feel balanced, relaxed and healthy, then try them out. I didn’t do these every day (except the first one) but I did have the intention to do at least two per day.

1) Plate ratios: for 1-2 meals per day ensure that about 50% of food intake is made up of vegetables. Ideally not potatoes! That means that half the plate is full of green, leafy and rooty veg. Why did I do it: it makes me feel more sated, I feel lighter because I am more “regular”, the fibre helps my blood sugar control which helps me to feel more balanced emotionally rather than the rollercoster of sugar swings which can make you feel anxious and jittery.

2) Guided relaxation: lying down and listening to a guided relaxation cd/tape for 15-30 minutes per day. There are many available online and you can download free guides. Why: this one step more than any other made a huge difference to my day. I felt emotionally calmer, able to accept the process I was going through and more balanced at a time when I was overcome with grief.

3) Water: drink between 1-1.5 ltrs of water per day. Why: on the days when I managed to reach the upper limit of the recommendation, I noticed my energy was better and I was clearer headed.

4) Gratitude: on waking think of all the things you are grateful for. Why: it lifted my spirits. The days that I began with gratitude were better than the days I started with a list of things to do or thoughts about my Mum’s passing. I found myself being grateful for many things I had taken for granted e.g. having a roof over my head, the beautiful city I live in, for 50 years having the love of a wonderful Mother, my rewarding job, even my frown – the list is endless!

5) Walking: walking in the open air for at least 30 minutes per day. I don’t always feel like doing this but I never regret it afterwards. Why: It just feels good. It’s invigorating, clears my head, gives me a break from the demands of being at home or work. Helps me to sleep.

6) Get a Wii Dance 2 game. OK, this may sound frivolous but, this year, it’s also made a difference to my wellbeing! We bought it for my children but I can’t walk by without wanting to join in. It’s simply a dance game with great music and choreographed dance sequences that you follow. Salsa, Hip Hop, Jazz, Dancehall, Rave – I can now do it all. I haven’t laughed so much and, at the same time, made other people laugh all year!

I also did other things like spend time with my children, family, friends and get enough sleep which were as beneficial but I didn’t list this above as this should go without saying.

Try out some of the above for yourself and let me know the difference it makes.

With all my heart, I would like to wish you health, contentment and laughter in 2011.

With love

Maria

Why I now like Winter

Why I now like Winter
Last year my perception of Winter as a season to moan about and bear was completely transformed by a beautiful and evocative article written by Jeanette Winterson. She writes about embracing the dark and winter: “get plenty of candles, and lay the fire if you have one. Prepare dinner ahead and plan a walk so that you will be heading for home in that lovely liminal time where light and dark are hinged against each other”. And I love what she says about Winter food “there is great pleasure to be had from coming home on a wild night and pouring a glass of good red wine [organic is best, of course], and cooking dark food, such as mushroom risotto or braised beef and turnips served with dark green cabbage and truffle mash. If you want to be depressed, spend long winter nights eating out-of-season food … real Winter food will give you good spirits of the kind not to be found in a ready meal”.

If you like, spend a few minutes reading this inspiring article and let it bring some warmth to your heart during this season. It can be found on http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/journalism_01/journalism_01_item.asp?journalism_01ID=249.

Sage Stuffed Pumpkin
There isn’t enough space here to outline the health
benefits of pumpkin but in short it contains
phytonutrients beneficial for the lungs and eyes. Other
studies have shown that it reduces the risk for
rheumatoid arthritis (by 41% in one study). You can use it
as a substitute for mashed white potatoes – much
healthier and, in my opinion, more delicious.
Millet is highly nutritious and is not an acid forming food
so is soothing and easy to digest. It is a warming grain
so will help to heat the body in cold or rainy seasons.

1 pumpkin
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp each black pepper and paprika
480ml vegetable stock
200g millet, rinsed and drained
30g shallots, finely chopped
30g shitake mushrooms (or other mushrooms),
thickly sliced
40g cashew nuts
30g fresh or frozen cranberries
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
6-8 sage leaves finely sliced
Preheat the oven to 190C (375F) gas 5.

Cut the pumpkin in half from stem to pointed tip.
Scrape out the seeds and strings. Place both halves, cut
side up, on a baking tray. Drizzle each pumpkin half with
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil, and sprinkle with 1 tsp of the
salt, the pepper and paprika.

Bake the pumpkin until tender, about 30-40 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring the vegetable stock to the boil in a
medium lidded saucepan and add the millet. Cover,
reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.
Place a medium frying pan over a medium heat and add
the remaining olive oil. Add the shallots, mushrooms and
remaining salt saute over a low heat for a further 10
minutes. Remove from heat and set aside while the
millet continues to cook.

Add the cooked grain to the frying pan and stir well to
combine. Place the pumpkin halves face up on two plates
and fill each hollow with he cooked grain mixture.

Clement October

RECIPE of the WEEK

Mushroom Ragout with Polenta
Polenta is a food that I have eaten since childhood due to the fact that my Father was a ‘Polentone’. That’s what Southern Italians call Northern Italians in the belief that most of their diet consists of cornmeal. Not true, of course, but we did eat it regularly with different ragouts. My Father liked his polenta plain but I prefer this recipe which enhances the mild corn flavour. As a carbohydrate it makes a change from pasta, rice, potatoes etc and it’s gluten-free.

Try and use some Shitake mushrooms for the ragout which contain a compound called lentinan. Studies have shown that this strengthens the immune system, increases survival time for various cancers, protects the liver, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure.

Mushroom Ragout
700g dried shitake mushrooms soaked in hot water for 30 minutes or fresh shitake (you could also use half shitake and half porcini or you could include some fresh mushrooms too). Whatever fungi you have in the cupboard!
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp chopped thyme
1 tsp chopped rosemary
125ml organic red wine
2 tbsp tomato puree
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish

Polenta
2 onions peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
50g butter or 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
5 sun-dried tomatoes, finely diced
200g polenta

Include some stir fried vegetables (cabbage, carrots, kale etc) to serve. I also throw in some fennel seeds for taste and to aid digestion.

Preheat oven to 200C, 400F/gas mark 6

First make the polenta. Gently cook the onion and garlic in the butter until soft. Add the stock and sun-dried tomatoes and bring to the boil. Slowly, in a continuous stream, pour in the polenta, heating continuously. Cook gently for approximately 2 minutes. Cool slightly then pour into a well-oiled tin and allow to cool. Turn out the polenta and cut into triangles. Place the triangles on an oiled baking sheet and roast in the hot oven for 10 minutes.

Wipe fresh mushroom free of any dirt and if they are large cut in half. Drain the dried mushrooms and save the soaking water by straining it. Slice the mushrooms finely. Heat the oil in a fairly large based saucepan, add the onions and all the mushrooms and stir well. Lower the heat and gently stir until the mushrooms begin to give up their juices then add the garlic, thyme and rosemary. Stir in the wine, reserved soaking liquid and tomato puree and cook until it is syrupy. Season with salt and pepper. Divide the mixture between 4 plates. Top with 2 triangles of polenta, scatter over the flat-leaf parsley. Don’t forget the veg: stir fry some finely sliced cabbage and carrots or any other vegetable and serve alongside.

Boun Appetito!

Ugly But Good Biscuits

I love this recipe as it reminds me of the cakes and biscuits I used to eat as a child. My Mum, who was Italian, usually opted for biscuits made with almonds or hazelnuts.

With the flavours of my childhood, these, Ugly But Good biscuits, are very simple to make and delicious. The combination of high protein and Xylitol will also help to keep you satisfied for longer.

Brutti Ma Buoni (Ugly But Good) biscuits
2 cups hazelnuts, toasted
1 cup Xylitol (or sugar)
4 large egg whites
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Position 2 racks as close to the center of the oven as possible; preheat to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
Pulse nuts and sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Scrape into a large bowl.

Beat egg whites and salt in another large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the nut mixture. Add vanilla and gently but thoroughly mix until combined.
Drop the batter by the tablespoonful 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies until golden brown, switching the pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Gently transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. When the baking sheets are thoroughly cooled, repeat with the remaining batter.

Most important bit: when they have cooled, put your feet up, turn the radio off and for a short moment, close your eyes and give these biscuits your full attention! Salute!
Con affetto, Maria

Courgette glut

My Uncle is the most gifted vegetable grower and has an amazing allotment (well three, in fact). Every year his wife tries to keep up with his bumper courgette crops. She dries them, stuffs them, makes soup/minestrone out of them and gives me basketfuls. I am, therefore, always on the look out for good courgette recipes. Here’s one:

Courgettes with Orange, Pine Nuts and Herbs
1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
120ml olive or rapeseed oil
90g fresh breadcrumbs (you can use rye bread etc if you are wheat free)
12 pitted green olives, roughly chopped
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp currants
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp small capers
Juice of l orange
Salt and black pepper to taste
4 courgettes

Fry the onion in the oil until soft, then stir in first the breadcrumbs and then all other ingredients bar the courgettes. Season, and set aside to cool. With a vegetable peeler, peel off alternate strips from the courgettes’ skin (e, so they look stripy) then blanch whole in boiling water for two minutes. Drain, and cool under running cold water. Halve the courgettes lengthways, brush with a little olive oil and season with salt. Heat the oven to 200C. Press the stuffing on top of the courgette half, and bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked.

Yummy Lentil Roast

Cheesy Lentil Roast
This delicious recipe comes from Viv, chef at the Flower Essence retreat
centre on the Isle of Gigha, Scotland. http:// www.healingorchids.com/

You can make it with green or brown lentils as well which give it a more
“meaty” flavour. You can use any strong cheese, I recommend the Woodland
Dairy Sheep Wensleydale or St Helen’s Farm Goat’s cheese.
It’s good hot or cold and reheats well. It’s important to have some
greaseproof paper on hand to line the tin as otherwise it’s very messy
to get the roast out of the tin!

1 mug red lentils
2 mugs stock (ideally save some water from cooked vegetables for this)
2 slices rye bread crumbs
4 oz grated strong cheese
1 leek or onion peeled and finely chopped
4oz mushrooms peeled and finely chopped
2 beaten eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon each dry mustard, ground cumin & ground coriander
2 tablespoons tomato puree
1 handful of fresh or 1 teaspoon of dried herbs of choice (e.g.
coriander, thyme, oregano)
Black or white pepper

Put the lentils, onion (or leek), stock, tomato puree, mustard, cumin
and coriander into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for about
20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed (if it’s not boil rapidly
to reduce or drain the excess stock off).
Preheat the oven to Gas 5 and line with greaseproof paper a 2lb loaf tin
(if you haven’t got one, you can use a couple of cake tins, the deeper
the better).
Add to the lentil mixture, the mushrooms, breadcrumbs, cheese, pepper
and herbs. Bind in the beaten eggs and lemon juice. Smooth into the
prepared tin and bake for about one hour.
For a lovely colourful effect when sliced (and an extra veg portion),
you can add a layer of chopped red roast pepper or some raw spinach to
the middle of the roast before cooking. Enjoy!

Quinoa food of the ancients

Quinoa Tabbouleh
Quinoa was known by the Incas as the “mother of grains”. They used the seeds of this plant as one of their chief sources of nutrition. In fact, legend has it that the Incan armies frequently marched for days at a time eating a mixture of quinoa and fat known as “war balls” (don’t worry, that’s not the recipe below!). I love Quinoa and frequently recommend it to my patients as part of a therapeutic diet. It’s very nutritious and one of the the higher protein grains. I use it to make a change from rice, couscous and other carbohydrates like potatoes. Here’s a simple and tasty recipe. Don’t forget to use the preserved lemon rind in this recipe as it adds that middle eastern twist which gives it another layer of flavour.

200g quinoa
400ml stock made with 1tsp vegetable bouillon
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 bunch mint, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
2 tablespoons preserved lemon rind, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the quinoa in a sieve, rinse under a cold tap, then tip into a dry saucepan and stir over heat for three to four minutes, until very lightly toasted. Add the stock, bring to the boil, cover, reduce the heat and cook gently for 20 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender. Remove from the heat and leave to stand, still covered, for 10 minutes. When cool stir in the parsley, mint, spring onions, preserved lemon rind, lemon juice and oil. Mix, then season to taste. Serve as an accompaniment or add a few toasted nuts and serve as a meal in itself.

Easy and nutritious risotto

I remember as a young girl being made to sit at the kitchen table to shell peas from my family’s allotment. Of course, being a child, I got bored after a few minutes and started using them as little footballs or as weapons against my little brother. I now enjoy the peace of sitting in my kitchen, listening to the radio and mindfully shelling peas. If only I could get my daughter to eat them – instead of playing with them! Here’s a recipe which will give you the opportunity of taking the weight of your feet for a few moments!

Spelt risotto with peas and spinach

1 litre chicken stock or Vegetable Bouillon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
300g pearled spelt, rinsed
500g fresh shelled peas
pinch sea salt, black pepper
500g young spinach leaves
50g freshly grated Parmesan (optional)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan oven), gas mark 5. Bring the stock to the boil in a small saucepan. Add the olive oil and a tablespoon of water to a large cast-iron casserole over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and steam fry for several minutes until softened, without colouring. Add the spelt and stir-fry for about a minute, then add the peas, the stock and some seasoning. Bring to the boil, cover and cook n the oven for 25 minutes. Place the casserole over a medium heat, then fold the spinach into the risotto in three goes, stirring constantly until it wilts. Drizzle a little extra olive oil, Parmesan (optional) and lemon juice. Scatter some parsley over the top and eat heartily.