Garlic, ginger & turmeric are a must for every winter shopping list – not only do these pungent foods add a big boost of flavour to your dishes, but they also deliver a ton of immune-boosting benefits. Antiviral and antibacterial, the medicinal properties of garlic and ginger have been used for years so up your intake as you head into the cooler months.
Start with Toum, a traditional Lebanese dip made from garlic cloves. Serve this garlicky dip with grilled chicken, beef or vegetables.
400 g grapeseed oil
40 g lemon juice
3 – 4 garlic cloves (approx. 25 grams)
1 tsp salt
3 egg whites, room temperature
80 – 100 g boiling water
And lastly remember, individual food groups are great for keeping your immune system healthy. However, your best option for optimal health for the whole body is to a varied and colourful diet made up of whole foods. Happy cooking!
Tomatoes
There’s a reason those clever Italians have an annual Passata Day every summer. Do as the Italians do and spend a day making your own homemade passata with juicy, ripe tomatoes. You’ll be thanking yourself for months to come! Plus, it’s a real cost-saver, and who doesn’t love that…
Stone Fruit
The blink-and-you-miss-it season of sweet, juicy stone fruit is so short it ought to be a crime. But for a very short time there’s stone fruit galore, and we know just what to do with it! Make your favourite fruits last all year by preserving as pastes and chutneys or whip into a delectable dessert…
Berries
By making the most of produce that’s in season, affordable and abundant you can enjoy delicious, sweet summer produce year-round at a fraction of the price. Happy cooking!
Ginger
Ginger is excellent for aiding digestion, reducing nausea, and nourishing your immune system. You can use it in soups, curries and stir-frys, but it’s in the sweets category that ginger really shines! Add some continental flair with this 
Nutmeg
There’s a reason nutmeg is so popular world-wide – it’s the secret ingredient in everyone’s favourite comfort foods. A pinch of nutmeg adds that little something-something to your 
Turmeric
This fragrant yellow powder is made from roasting and grinding the turmeric root. Turmeric is a powerful antioxidant and is highly anti-inflammatory. As well as being a colourful addition to curries, turmeric is a great alternative to coffee or tea. Try this 
Spice blends to try at home
Have you tried making your own spice blends at home? Once you’ve tried it, we promise, you can’t go back! The freshness and intensity of freshly ground spices makes such a difference to the flavour and aroma of your dishes. Plus, skip the sugar, salt and anti-caking agents that are often hidden in store bought blends. Get started with this 
Tip from our recipe team
When cooking, roast your spices before adding them to your dish, as this enhances the flavours and aromas of the spices, giving your dish that extra oomph. While dry roasting spices is an excellent way to release flavour, you’ll also find that slow-cooked recipes bring out the flavour of spices as they soften and permeate the dish, so in this case you don’t need to dry roast as well.
The term ‘crowding out’ is a method used by nutritionists and health coaches to encourage their clients to eat more of the good stuff! The more you pile up your plates with healthy and fresh foods like fruit and veggies, the less room you’ll have remaining for other foods such as refined carbohydrates which are good to keep to a minimum. And as you begin to eat more whole foods, you’ll find you begin to crave less of the processed and sugary stuff that doesn’t tend to support our nutrition and health.
Here’s how to give the foods you love to eat a nourishing makeover.
Hidden veg
It’s a well-used hack for getting kids to eat their veggies, but sometimes even adults need a little extra motivation to reach their daily serve. If this is you, or maybe someone you know, then try adding mild flavoured and lightly coloured vegetables (like peeled zucchini and cauliflower) into your favourite dishes. Just chop them finely in your Thermomix first, and the recipient will be none the wiser. Saucy items like pasta sauces, curries, lasagne, risottos and even pizza sauce are the perfect vehicle for hidden vegetables.
You can even start to swap out some of the meat in your dishes for extra vegetables without sacrificing on flavour (or comfort factor). For example, when making 
What’s our number one tip for upgrading you favourite meals? Add some greenery! Leafy green herbs such as coriander, parsley and basil are great sources of Vitamins A, C and K, along with minerals such as iron and calcium. So adding a generous serving of chopped, fresh herbs on top of your favourite dishes will not only add stacks of flavour but also increases the nutrient density of that meal too. If you really want to go for gold when it comes to upping your greens, then we recommend you try Sam Wood’s 
Beans like black beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans are filled with plant-based protein and fibre, along with essential vitamins and minerals. Plus, they’re a super versatile ingredient, and many bakers are using them in place of flour to create gluten-free delights.
This trick works best in denser baked goods like mud cakes, mud muffins, brownies and blondies. For inspiration try Louise Keats 
After a long winter of consuming a lot of cooked dinners, spring is a good time to add back in some more raw plant foods into your diet. “Live” foods, that is foods that haven’t been processed or cooked, are often higher in certain vitamins such as Vitamin C, along with some antioxidants that are usually destroyed during the cooking process. Slowly increasing your intake of raw foods can be as simple as snacking on raw fruits and vegetables, serving your pastas and lasagne with a green side salad, or adding a dollop of homemade 
This all being said, if you’re making something that needs more structure, like a Genoise sponge or a Swiss roll, you’ll need to beat your eggs for much longer, to ensure they’re beautifully fluffy and stable. If you’re preparing one of these cakes, your eggs will need to be beaten for 6 Min / 37°C / Speed 4, then for a further 6 Min / Speed 4. This really ensures that the sponge is given enough stability to make it amazing and fluffy.
Voilá! You just learned how to beat eggs!
Do you have a particular tip you’d like to see me chat about? Got a sticky Thermomix question you’d love answered? Leave me a comment below! I’d love to hear from you.
Source: sophiaskitchen.blog
It’s happened to us all at some point: you’re cleaning out your fridge, and you find tucked away an old container full of either egg yolks or whites that were leftover from a recipe goodness knows how long ago. Your intentions were good, in that you were going to keep them to use in something else, but you never quite figured out what that “something else” would be. I’ve been there. That’s why I’ve decided to compile this list of the 10 best ways to use leftover egg whites and egg yolks – so you can keep those leftovers with confidence knowing you’ve got the perfect recipe to use them in!
How to store egg whites:
Before we can even think about what recipes to use our leftover eggs in, we need to know how to store them properly. Egg whites are actually really easy to store: they keep for two days in the fridge in an airtight container (to avoid them drying out). Alternatively, they also freeze really well. Either freeze them in batches, if you’re planning on using a few at a time, or use an ice cube tray to freeze the whites individually, making them super easy to pop out and defrost in the fridge as you need them. Just remember: once you’ve defrosted them you can’t freeze them again, so make sure you only defrost what you need.How to store egg yolks:
Egg yolks are a little trickier to store, only in that they don’t freeze well. Egg yolks are very susceptible to drying out, so the freezer isn’t the best place for them. They will keep for two days in the fridge in an airtight container, just ensure that you add a little splash of water to the container as well to keep them from drying and forming a skin. It’s important to practice good food hygiene when handling and storing egg yolks, so just make sure the container you keep them in is clean, and you only store them for short periods of time.Best ways to use up egg whites:
Basic Italian Meringue
Raspberry Coconut Marshmallows
Portuguese Custard Tarts
Custard
Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Equipment:
shallow, wide bowl
fork
non-stick frying pan
spatula
Up the cheese factor with a 
For the fish-loving dads, head to 
Celebrate great British charcuterie with a selection of hand-made products from London-based cured meat supplier 
In Jamie’s words, Jekka of 
Ingredients
– 6 green onions (4 whole, 2 cut into pieces)
– 2 whole Branzino, gutted and cleaned (approx. 24-32 oz)
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 ½ ounce ginger, peeled (2 oz thinly sliced, .5 oz cut into ¼ inch pieces)
– 6 garlic cloves
– ½ oz cilantro leaves
– ½ tsp dried chili flakes
– 1 tbsp black bean chili sauce
– 2 tsp rice wine
– 2 tsp sesame oil
– 20 oz water
– fresh cilantro leaves
– 1 lime
– Chinese chives (for garnish)
Preparation
This is where mocktails, or what many in the bartending community have started calling spirit-free drinks, can come in quite handy. Having non-alcoholic drinks that mock cocktails and are made with fresh produce like watermelon, blueberries, celery, beets, ginger, and the like can be a delicious and healthy replacement for boozing it up.
[Keep reading to to see a tantalizing mocktail recipe coming up in the last section of this post!]
“Fresh juices offer tremendous amounts of vitamins and minerals, not to mention high levels of antioxidants,” Henson says. “Depending on preparation, fresh juices can also add significant fiber to the diet. Getting these nutrients from food sources, is and will always be, better that getting them from a pill.”
Ingredients To Blend
Henson recommends using smaller fruit like blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, which have lower sugar content than melons to make fresh fruit juice-based mocktails a few times a week. He’s also big on including herbs, spices and seasonings like ginger, turmeric, basil, and mint to add flavor, as well as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Another fun ingredient is Kombucha, a fermented carbonated beverage that contains live probiotics.
“These are well incorporated into our digestive tract, and make sense to me as a mocktail additive,” says Henson.
That being said, expectant women or post-partum mothers should take heed. While Kombucha is delicious and offers health benefits, it does contain 
Nutmeg is the seed of the evergreen Myristica fragrans tree. Intense and highly aromatic, this warm and slightly sweet spice compliments both savory and sweet dishes. Historically used in Eastern medicine to treat gastrointestinal issues, a study in the 
Ginger is the spicy, pungent root of a plant indigenous to China. Sweet and spicy at the same time, this root offers a bit of heat too (but not the lingering kind that chilis might bring). 
Turmeric in its fresh, whole state is a root native to Southeast Asia with a bright orange interior and a texture similar to ginger root. It has a musky, pungent aroma and a somewhat bitter flavor, and it’s often added to dishes for additional color and a touch of earthiness. Turmeric contains curcumin, which is said to have powerful 
Star anise is the seed pod of an evergreen tree native to Vietnam and China. Star anise can be a polarizing spice, as it has a flavor and aroma that is almost identical to that of black licorice. Regardless, star anise has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years to help aid digestion and improve appetite. It’s reported to have 
Clove is a powerful and distinct spice with a strong, somewhat bitter flavor that also leans a little toward sweet. Like many of the spices on this list, cloves are also attributed with
