theflavourco

Blades of Glory

2012-06-28T08:40:00.002-07:00

The Blendtec/Vitamix Challenge

When it comes to high-power blenders, there are only two names on the market worth considering: Blendtec and Vitamix.

(If you know of any others, please tell us!)

Both brands are costly - expect to pay at least £500 if you buy either product new. If you prepare smoothies regularly they are well worth the expense because the intense power behind the blades ensures that the fruit is soundly pulped to extract the best possible flavour.

Green smoothies that would be lumpy and bitty in a cheaper blender are smooth and creamy when made in a Vitamix or Blendtec. In addition they can be used to make many other food and drink recipes.

We use Blendtecs in The Flavour Co, but smoothie fanatic Declan has his own Vitamix and he volunteered to bring it in so we could compare both brands and see which one came out on top.

...and they're off! Blending a gorgeous fruity combination of strawberries and pineapple juice.

The Blendtec has a bit of an issue with spillage. Not a drop was spilled from the Vitamix, which has a tall, narrow, 2L jug.

Apart from that, the finished product was equally delicious from both blenders.

Hungry for change

2012-03-22T17:26:00.002-07:00

Watch. this. film.

You have 8 days and 23 hours from the time of this post to watch Hungry For Change free online.

Why would you want to watch it? Well, it could transform the way you think about food. Or you might just want to gawp at the staggering amount of weight some of the people featured in the film have managed to lose. And at the way interviewees who were seriously sick have been turned into bouncing visions of health and vitality.

If you're already a healthy eater there will probably still be a few things in this film to make you gasp in amazement. For example, the fact that scientists who want to work with fat lab mice feed them MSG (monosodium glutamate) to make them put on weight.

MSG is fed to lab mice to make them fat.

So why are food manufacturers allowed to put it in the food they sell to us? I thought we had a national obesity crisis!

And did you know that getting a good night's sleep can aid weight loss?

The overall message of the film is very positive. There are no complicated diet rules advocated - the overall message is:

Eat more good stuff.

Love yourself.

Get some sleep!

Oh, and eat more good stuff!

True colours

2012-03-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

This picture shows the gorgeous natural colours of real food. It makes me wonder why anyone would want to add a lurid food dye to their food.

Unless that food is so unnatural it needs to be disguised by adding a colour.

Children are usually attracted to food in bright, gaudy colours, and the brightest colours come from the fruit and vegetable world. But most of us quickly lose contact with what our body wants and turn to junk food that imitates real food.

Instead of eating a real orange we become addicted to orange-coloured sweets.

We poured out these tasters after making a few juices at The Flavour Co. They contained nothing but fruit. The one on the left was pineapple, ginger, chilli, lemon and lime; the one in the middle was spinach, lime, apple and pineapple and the one on the right was strawberry and pineapple.

They were all delicious.

New website

2011-11-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

OUR new website is now up and running and I think it looks great! It's at www.flavourshop.co.uk.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently - I've been too busy working on the new website, as well as some other projects.

About six weeks ago our old website suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, as I was putting the soups of the day online. The site owner apologised and said he would correct the problem... but nothing happened, so I decided to take control of the situation and do it myself, using a web hosting programme and Wordpress. The results are pretty good, and if it disappears in a puff of smoke again I should be able to create another one.

Hands up who knows what this is?

2011-09-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

It's not a walnut. It's not an apricot stone.

It's a nutmeg!

Maybe you knew that already - but with so many of us consuming our food in processed form, it's always good to remember what the ingredients look like "in the raw".

Nutmeg is an aromatic spice used as a flavouring for foods and beverages. It's usually bought in ground form, but whole nutmegs can also be purchased from supermarkets and groceries. Whole nutmegs are deliciously fragrant.

At The Flavour Co we use ground nutmeg in some of our smoothies and on coffees – but only in small amounts.

Nutmeg grater

Nutmeg graters are cheap and are easily obtained from department stores or large supermarkets, or on the internet.

It's not an alien spaceship -
it's a Kitchen Craft Nutmeg Mill.

Or you might prefer to use a nutmeg mill.

Nutmegs are native to the Moluccan Islands of Indonesia, and these days Grenada in the Caribbean is also a major producer of the spice.

Nutmegs grow on trees as the kernels of a soft fruit. When ripe they are encased in a web-like pith called mace. This can also be ground and used as a spice.

Nutmeg is said to be both a stimulant and a muscle relaxant. It is used to treat eczema, acne, toothache, coughs, colds and insomnia.

Great in small sprinklings, nutmeg can have a hallucinogenic effect when taken in large amounts (ie more than one whole nutmeg in one serving). It can also produce symptoms of dizziness, stomach ache and even delirium if taken large doses.

Going by the many Youtube videos on this subject, imbibing large amounts of nutmeg at one sitting can give you the personality of a 106-year-old.

Pregnant women are advised to avoid nutmeg, although small amounts are believed to be safe.

There's nothing like a sprinkling of nutmeg on a hot milky drink.

Use the grater to sprinkle nutmeg onto
a coffee or hot chocolate, or into soup as a flavouring.

Nutmeg soy mocha... sheer bliss.

Recipe: Avocado and Beetroot Juice

2011-08-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

An unexpectedly delicious combination.

This dairy-free yet smooth as silk super-healthy* beverage can be made using an ordinary home juicer and blender.

To make one smoothie you'll need:

Half a small avocado

Half a raw beetroot (don’t use the pickled ones in packets!)

A raw beetroot - not the prettiest vegetable.

Half a medium or large pineapple – or alternatively, 2 large or 3 small oranges

Warning: wear an apron when working with beetroot and have washing facilities or kitchen paper at hand. It's very messy!

What to do

First of all, wash the beetroot carefully, then chop off the top and the “tail” (root).

You can peel the beetroot using a potato peeler if you like, but it’s not necessary as the juicer will extract the juice and leave everything else behind.

Chop the beetroot in half.

Skin the pineapple using a sharp knife. You don’t need to take out the “eyes” or the hard middle bit, as the juicer will remove these. You might not even need to remove the pineapple skin, but that depends on how sturdy your juicer is.

Slice up the pineapple so that it fits into the chute of the juicer and juice along with the beetroot. (If you’re using oranges instead of pineapple, peel them and pop them into the juicer along with the beetroot.)

To prepare the avocado, slice into it as far down as the stone inside, and score right round the fruit lengthways. Then slice it lengthways again, down the middle of one half, so that you can pull away two quarter sections. Peel the skin off these two sections – if it’s difficult to peel, the avocado may not be ripe enough yet.

DON’T put the avocado into the juicer - chop it up into chunks and put the chunks in the blender.

Add the pineapple (or orange) and beetroot juice to the avocado in the blender.

Pour into a cup...

Enjoy!

It's hard to describe how delicious this juice is. You just have to try it for yourself.

Health benefits

* Avocados are packed with nutrients, and although high in fat (mainly monounsaturated fat) they can be helpful in weight management. Read more here.

* Recent research at London's Queen Mary University has indicated that beetroot juice can reduce blood pressure. Click here for more.

* Beetroot has also been shown to improve stamina, according to several studies including recent research at the University of Exeter. Read more here.

* Beetroot is packed full of health-giving vitamins and minerals. Read more about this incredible super-veg here.

Eat more good stuff!

2011-08-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

OVER the years there has been so much publicity about “bad” foods, things we should stay away from. People try to improve their health by cutting things out, only eating foods of a certain type. I’m all for cutting things out if it’s a sensible detox programme carried out for a very short time only.

Instead of trying to cut out this...

My way of thinking is quite different. Instead of trying to cut out “bad” foods, we should be trying to put in good foods – ie, food and drink that is high in nutrients. If your body has all the nutrients it needs, it won’t crave so much of the “bad” stuff.

Anyway, I don't really believe any food is inherently bad for you unless it's poisonous or contaminated - or you're allergic to it. Humans have been on this planet for around 200,000 years and we’re all descended from long lines of ancestors who had to eat all sorts of things in order to survive. Our bodies have evolved to allow us to survive on a vast range of food and drink sources, many of which would make most of us feel sick to even think about today – but if we had nothing else to survive on they could sustain us.

... just drink more of this!

The human body really is an amazing life-sustaining package, and if you feed it the things it really wants and needs it will soon start to regulate itself. When you have a good supply of nutrients in your system you’ll probably find you only want one cup of coffee or a few pieces of chocolate. The times when we feel like scoffing a whole packet of biscuits at one sitting are usually those times when our nutrient levels are depleted – either because we haven’t been eating enough nutritious food or because we’ve been over-working and undersleeping.

One of the best ways to get a good dose of vitamins and minerals is to drink a freshly-squeezed fruit juice or fruit or green smoothie. And not only will it give you a generous dose of nutrients – it will taste delicious too.