ANGEL MUNRO

What do we really no about the nutrient value of food Once a student of a topic, no matter how many official titles you receive after studying that topic you still always remain a student. Well, at least one should. When I first finished my degree in nutrition, whenever I would write a recipe I would start off by identifying all the vitamin & minerals and other various compounds of said ingredients, and highlighting their said benefits, looking at it from a completely reducti

I had the very best Eggplant Parmigiana pie from Bread Club in Albert Park a few weeks ago. I was inspired to make something similar. This larger pie to feed a crowd with the addition of ricotta is a little bit more akin to a Pasta Alla Norma, a Sicilian pasta dish made with eggplant & ricotta salata or fresh ricotta, hence the name Tart Alla Norma. I used flaky store bought puff pastry to make this tart. I recommend Careme Spelt Wholemeal Butter Puff Pastry, not sponsored,

This is a very popular recipe from Gourmet Traveller that was published many moons ago (I know I’ve been making it for about 15/16 years). Its such an easy recipe to make, I had to re-share. I usually have something sweet in the fridge for the family during the week & this recipe is a nice and easy for midweek baking. I’ve adapted the recipe slightly. Apart from some extra spices, I’ve specified organic panela sugar & raw sugar in this recipe, the original recipe had brown su

On a recent trip to visit my mum in Byron Bay we went to a café where my mum ordered toast with this wholefood version of vegemite & I knew I had to recreate it. Vegemite is a staple in many Australian homes as a breakfast spread. While there several undesirable ingredients in Kraft Vegemite & similar brand alternatives one of the biggest reasons to avoid it is folic acid. The methylation cycle is a vital cycle happening in the cells & tissue throughout the body &is a vital

Commercial gluten free bread is often some of the most processed food you can get. They often contain combinations of highly refined flours such white rice flour, soy flour, modified tapioca starch, maize starch, maize flour & potato flour that can cause a higher spike in blood pressure than white flour. When eaten frequently this constant high spike in blood glucose can lead to weight gain & contribute to metabolic diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes & obesity. Ot

These roasted cashews are as easy to make as they are delicious. They have a warm punch with the addition of gochugaru, otherwise known as Korean red pepper powder, which has a smoky, fruity-sweet aroma with a spicy kick. These are great to have on hand as a snack or as nibble for guest before a meal. Nuts can be expensive especially organic nuts. In Australia, cashews tend to be the cheapest organic nut you can purchase making them accessible. Flavouring & roasting them your

With my long stint of both of my children (they are 11 years apart in age) going through Steiner Education, my most treasured memory is of the seasonal festivals & my favourite of those has always been the Winter Solstice celebrations, a beautiful tradition that embraces the magic and beauty of the shortest day & longest night of the year. Some of the activities from those celebration we have continued as a tradition at home. We always celebrate the winter solstice with a fir

These fritters inspired by Alice Zaslavsky'z Zucchini & onion fritters linked here are easy & quick to make & taste very similar to falafel. They can be used to make many different meals & freeze well so they are good meal prepping. They are high in protein, gluten free & vegan. Serve with a simple yogurt sauce as a snack, with eggs as a toast replacement for breakfast, as part of a nourishing bowl with veggies, salad & hummus, as burger patties or a wrap filling, or my perso

This delicious recipe is so quick and easy, you can make it in one saucepan & it hits that chocolate craving, while being a little healthier. The tamari gives the brownies a lovely slightly salty & rich complexity. These brownies are adapted from Hetty McKinnon’s recipe for Flourless Soy Sauce Brownies. I love her recipe and have made it a few times. The main reason I decided to adapt her recipe that uses chocolate & cocoa is that the organic chocolate that I usually buy isn’

I swim with friends a couple of times a week & we have a ritual of having a coffee after & sometimes a cookie like these ones at a local cafe. They are so incredibly good, we spent months trying to work out what was in them, these ones come very close, luckily for us as the cafe stopped selling them. These cookies are vegan, gluten free & refined sugar free; they are easy to make, good for an easy breakfast or snack any time of day. They contain good fats, protein, fibre, sl

Matchuba is a Moroccan dish than can used as part of a dip, part of a mezze or as a base for other dishes. It makes a great base for a quick shakshuka. I love it on top of hummus served with bread, pita crisps or corn chips for a yummy twist on an old favourite. You can find my hummus recipe here. You can eat matchuba hot or cold & it can be stored in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week. Capsicums are an incredibly nutrient dense food, that are at their peak late summ

This hummus is particularly creamy. It’s such an easy nutrient dense food, that I’ll happily eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. For this hummus whether you use cooked chickpeas or canned chickpeas, you still cook them again for 10-20 minutes with bicarb soda to make them really soft & mushy. This will give you a really creamy hummus. More on cooking & storing big batches of chickpeas here. For a loaded hummus, pile Matchuba on top. Recipe for that can be found here. Chick

Zucchini, classified a summer vegetable, will continue to fruit well into autumn. I have some growing in the garden & currently, the plants are producing prolifically. To purchase, they are cheap & abundant right now. In Australia we can virtually buy whatever fruit & vegetables we like regardless of the season. The problem with this apart from the obvious environmental issues is a degradation of the nutrients due to long refrigeration & travel times. In addition, nature alwa

Plums are in season and plentiful at the moment. This recipe is a delicious & easy way to use up your plums, the rosemary pairs beautifully with the plum. Alternatively, you can use fresh thyme, it goes equally well with plums. You can also skip the butter & add splash of apple juice. You can keep them in the fridge for up to five days. Eat them with, yogurt, ice cream, with muesli, chia pudding or on top of porridge. Plums are an excellent source of fibre & vitamin C as well

This recipe is adapted from a Green Kitchen Stories recipe for Spinach & Quinoa Patties that I have been making for years (original recipe here). Recently when making the patties, I didn’t have quinoa, so I swapped it out for beluga lentils, and I was pleasantly surprised. Lentils are one of my most loved staple foods. They’re satisfying, comforting, versatile & nutritionally rich. Lentils are part of the legume family, they are high in protein, vitamins, minerals & fibre. St

Not all commercial almond milks are created equal, some are worse than others. Often they contain unwanted ingredients such a preservatives, maltodextrin which can spike blood sugar & cause digestive issue & many contain proceed seed oils. Regular consumption of processed seed oils causes inflammation and increases the risk of blood sugar dysregulation, cancer & cardiovascular disease. This recipe only contains almonds, water, honey & salt, simple. Almonds contain contain, zi

Leafy Greens & Cheese Rolls Makes 16 rolls This is a great recipe to use up leafy greens that are in your garden at the end of winter/early spring. I used a combination of broccoli leaves, rainbow chard & kale however any dark leafy green will do. These are great to have on hand in the freezer. Just don’t cook them as long initially, cool & freeze for up to 3 months. Dark leafy greens should be a daily staple in any diet. In addition to containing, iron, calcium, potassium, m

Oat milk has become a very popular alternative to dairy milk, with cafés everywhere now serving it. Oats are an excellent medicinal food that is a favoured therapeutic in nutritional & naturopathic medicine over many applications. Commercial oat milks contain fortification & additives like Dibasic Potassium Phosphate & Potassium Carbonate that can cause side effects in some individuals. Furthermore, fortified foods either with vitamins or minerals are not always fortified wit

Daikon radish is in season right now, daikon is high in vitamin C, folate, potassium & molybdenum. Radish are part of the cruciferous family & share the same anticancer activity as broccoli, cabbage, kale & brussels sprouts. In addition, daikon contain sulphur based compounds that facilitate liver & gall bladder function & aid digestion. This is a really easy & delicious way to prepare daikon. Use the pickled carrot & radish to make your own banh mi as pictured above or serve

If you area fan of Mary's Gone Crackers or Carman's Nut & Seed Crackers then this recipe is for you! These are gluten free, incredibly delicious, nutrient dense, much cheaper than the store bought variety & I love the drama of the shard shape as apposed to tiny circular crackers. These crackers are really easy to make & store in an airtight container for up to three weeks so they are a great addition to your meal prep routine. Regular nut & seeds consumption is attributed wit

This is a great remedy to have in the fridge, especially during the colder months. You can take it for general immune support or at the first site of a colds or flu. Elderberry has been shown to reduce the symptoms and duration of acute respiratory conditions. Elderberries contain quercertin, rutin, anthocyanins & vitamin C, all known to modulate the immune system & aid detoxification pathways. Elderberries are anti inflammatory, stimulate the immune system, promote the excr

Ghee, What is it? Ghee is a cooking fat is made from butter, when both the water and milk solids have been removed through heating. Because of this process ghee is heat stable, so it can cook at really high temperatures (unlike butter & plant oils) & it will keep out of the fridge, even in hot temperatures. The removal of the milk solids means that ghee is both lactose- and casein-free. Because of this, ghee can often (but not in every case) be consumed by those who cannot e

This bread is a bit of a game changer. When my clients need to restrict or eliminate wheat from their diet, finding replacements can be a challenge. Lots of gluten free breads on the market contain refined starches that can spike blood sugar levels higher that refined wheat can. In addition, many contain lots of unwanted preservatives and additives. This bread has little ingredients, is wholefood, high fibre & incredibly easy to make. It makes a great sandwich loaf (hard to a

Soup is generally thought of as a winter dish but sometimes I find when it’s really hot, I want things that are easy to eat. This dish is best to make when tomatoes are in season & they are extra ripe & sweet. Tomatoes are high in lycopene, which is protective against breast, colon, lung, prostate & skin cancer. Lycopene is a fat-soluble nutrient, so it is always best absorbed when consumed with a fat, i.e. olive oil. Interestingly unlike most vitamins & phytochemicals that d

By Angel Munro Regular juicing in addition to a balanced diet has many benefits. The recommended daily intake of fruit & vegetables is 2-3 serves of fruit & 7-8 serves of vegetables (a basic guide is 1 serve= 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables or cooked fruit or 1 cup of salad vegetables or raw fruit). This recommendation has shown to reduce the risk of chronic diseases as well as optimising gut and immune health in individuals. However, this can sometimes be a hard goal to reach i

By Angel Munro Makes 12 These delicious gluten free savoury muffins have a lovely golden cornmeal crunch to them. They are the perfect addition to a lunch box, a great accompaniment to a bowl of soup, a hearty black bean or pinto bean stew, or enjoy them straight from the oven with good quality, butter. Corn is a gluten free wholegrain that contains vitamin C, vitamin E, folate, magnesium & the photochemical lutein, a carotenoid that protects against heart disease & macular d

This Kale Caesar Salad is vegetarian, but you could easily add some free range crispy fried bacon & replace the capers for some anchovies to make it more traditional. Kale has a slight bitterness to it, however in this dish, its completely balanced with the saltiness from the capers & the richness from the mayonnaise, parmesan & eggs. Bitter greens such as kale, rocket & dandelion are nutritional powerhouses & should be included into most meals. They are packed with beta caro

By Angel Munro This salad was born from what was in the fridge one day & has ended up being on high rotation. Lentils provide a good balance of complex carbohydrates and protein, providing slow releasing energy. Lentils are high in fibre, essential for a healthy microbiome & therefore a healthy immune system. The variety of brightly coloured vegetables provide phytochemicals & nutrients that are aid liver detoxification, are cellular protective & immune regulating. I

Angel Munro Serves 6 Lentils are one of my most loved staple foods. They’re satisfying, comforting, versatile & nutritionally rich. Lentils are part of the legume family, they are high in protein, vitamins, minerals & fibre. Studies have found that a diet that regularly includes the intake of lentils is associated with lower body weight, lower cholesterol, increased diversity in beneficial bacteria in the gut & decreased pathogens in the gut. A diverse microbiome has a positi

I love cake, well made European style cakes. However, I try to restrict refined foods to the weekend. This gluten free cake, adapted from Amy Chaplin’s recipe, is a good midweek cake sans the cake guilt. This hazelnut & berry cardamom cake is full of good things, is gluten free & refined sugar free. Maple syrup is a great sweetener, containing minerals zinc & manganese. Zinc is essential for immune function, skin health & reproductive health. Manganese is a cofactor for super

This salad is an interpretation of one of my favourite salads from one of my favourite cafes, Alimentari. The recipe calls for soaking the brown rice overnight, it’s not essential, however, it makes the nutrients more available and easier to absorb & it will cut down cooking time. Brown rice provides slow releasing complex carbohydrates to give you long lasting energy as well as mood boosting nutrients such as magnesium & B vitamins. The parsley & rocket provide good a

This deliciously silky soup is packed full of broccoli. It a great way to get non broccoli lovers to eat the vegetable. Broccoli is part of the cruciferous family & is packed full of nutrients such as vitamin K, vitamin C, Lutien, Folate, Magnesium, Calcium & Iron as well as well as phytochemicals sulfuophane & indole-3-carbanole, both of which aid phase II liver detoxification and demonstrate anticancer effects. Not only is this recipe packed full of nutrients, the recipe us