Banana Blossom Buddha Bowl
Song suggestions:
Spit of You - Sam Fender
Swimmers - Zero 7 feat. Jem Cooke
Ingredients
Recipe:
1 tin banana blossom
1 onion
3 large garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaped tbsp tomato paste/purée
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1-2 tsp marmite, to taste (I use 2)
pinch of chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste
175ml water
To serve: brown rice, avocado, red pepper, carrot, borlotti beans, salad and red pickled cabbage (sriracha sauce optional)
Recipe:
Peel the onion and thinly slice. Peel and mince the garlic. Drain the banana blossom and beans from their cans, separately. Rinse clean!
Gather the banana blossom pieces and shred using a fork.
Add the onion and garlic to a pan with the olive oil and cook until soft and translucent.
Add the banana blossom and cook until slightly crispy on the outside.
Add the remainder of ingredients to make a sauce, mix well and simmer until thick and reduced. Season with salt and pepper to taste!
I like to serve this over brown rice with shredded carrot, sliced avocado, chopped red pepper, the beans, a mixed leaf salad with pickled red cabbage and a wedge of lime.
A Bite Out of Life
For those of you who read this blog often or follow me on social media, you’ll know that during the pandemic I went out to care for my grandparents, as they were living alone. My grandparents are both getting quite old, and with that comes the obvious decline in health for them but it’s been a period of adjustment for those watching on the outside too; I’m utterly privileged and blessed to say that at the age of 25 I still have all 4 grandparents, but the realisation that they are not immortal hits quite hard when you start to see the decline first-hand. I’ve been looking through a lot of old photos recently and it’s astounding to me that amongst the few photos I have of them, given that we have lived in separate countries for all our lives, about 80% of them are food-related. The life of the grandparents I cared for utterly revolved around food: it was the highlight of their day, it was their purpose in terms of growing food (Grandad) and cooking food (Grandma) and it was their biggest pleasure in having their family sat at the table. The opportunities were few, but fond. The orange trees at my grandparents’ house are like liquid gold; I recently bought my own little one for Kirkgate Market in Leeds and I’ve named it Luisa, after my grandma, in the hopes that one day I’ll be able to plant it and it bring as much joy to the future generations of our family as hers did to me.
