Useful Kitchen Equipment
Because many of the recipes used by Health and Hope have a number of raw foods, you would benefit by having a sharp vegetable knife, chopping boards and a small bucket into which to put the peelings or scraps. These can then go in the compost bin to enrich your garden. It is useful to place the chopping board or sheet on a tray, as this contains the juices that run off making it easier to clean up, and keeps work surfaces from becoming stained.
In your fridge it is worthwhile dedicating a shelf to your greengrocery products. A number of plastic containers lined with absorbent kitchen paper are useful for small radishes or spring onions (scallions) or cherry tomatoes. Their length of life is greatly increased in this way.
There is one piece of equipment that is used in several of the recipes—a blender. It is a good investment. A strong one gives the best results and lasts longer. The recipes we use are principally for whole-food cooking, and this means using some fibrous ingredients. The commonest of these are dates. They are a very good sweetener, but they need to be broken down so that their sweetness blends easily with the other ingredients used.
HINT Some information about using dates. You may only think of them as a seasonal food all shiny with glucose syrup! The ones to use by choice, are the natural ones without sugars. Before using them in cooking, place a few in a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer gently, stirring occasionally. Eventually the water will be absorbed, and they will have become a pulp that can be stirred with a spoon. This is called date butter. If you keep it in a closed jar in the fridge it will be ready for the time you want to used it to make a healthy dessert in the week. It can also be used as a spread on bread, with some peanut butter for breakfast.
FURTHER NUTRITIONAL HINT Sugar is an empty food. It is high in calories but has little more to offer than instant energy. It clogs up the system, spoils the skin with spots, puts on waistline spread, and overworks the delicate pancreas—many times a day. By contrast dates, are a food from ancient times food providing a concentrated package of fibre, vitamin A and minerals—calcium, potassium, phosphorus and more. But more than that, they are full of sweetness. Because they are concentrated not so many should be used at a time, even if they do taste good.
There are times when a food processor is a good buy, for making a variety of foods quite quickly and with minimum effort, but it is not essential, whereas a blender is a necessity.
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