Since being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis six months ago, I have done a lot of reading and a lot of learning. I have completely changed the way I eat, drink, move and think. One of the most fun things has been creating new recipes and putting them all on this blog, ensuring that I can enjoy all my favourite foods and stay healthy. However, I have still been struggling with pains and mobility restrictions and this can be a real mental and emotional challenge.
I drink a green juice every morning. It’s a crucial part of my routine, my daily nutrition, my attempts to detoxify daily and to me healing my body and getting healthy. When I became ill, green juices are what helped me turn my health around.
In autumn I love to eat food that is deep red, orange and yellow in colour to match the trees turning colour outside. These colours always feel so hearty and delicious mixing deep wintery flavours with mild summer sweetness. I eat lots of salads in the summer, and this dish is the perfect way to welcome in the new colder season, as it’s still a salad but served warm; perfect for autumn days before the cold of winter really sets in.
I love to eat as many figs as u can at this time of year when they are ripe, plentiful and cheap. They always remind me of autumn and they always remind me of my Mama, who also loves them. I remember when I was younger, I would spend hours climbing the large fig tree in our garden on warm summer evenings.
Stuffed vegetables are a very popular in the Middle East; stuffed zucchini, aubergine, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, vine leaves and more. The most common in my house growing up where aubergine, zucchini, vine leaves and cabbage. My Mama could spend hours making large pots of these stuffed vegetables that could last from hours to days. They are a real family favourite. While these are usually stuffed with meat and rice, I have made mine vegetarian and a lot more nutritious.
There is nothing more beautiful than bright, vibrant flowers adorning food and drink, and it’s even better when you get to eat them. I found these fabulous bright orange flowers at my local farmer’s market. They have a spectacular peppery taste, and I knew they would complement perfectly a mixed leaf salad with a sweet and syrupy dressing. This salad is the perfect way to say ‘good bye’ to summer.
Autumn is a great time of year for warm salads. It’s not very warm outside, but it’s also not too cold yet. Leafy summer salads don’t appeal, but neither does hot stews, so this salad is the perfect gateway between the seasons. This warm salad is especially autumnal with the beautiful green and purple cauliflower. I love roasted cauliflower, as you will have read in a previous post, as it reminds me of the exceptionally tasty, but not so healthy deep-fried cauliflower I grew up with in my Mama’s very Middle Eastern kitchen. Roasting gives you all the flavour and texture, but it supremely better for your health.
Spaghetti Bolognese is a real family favourite in most households. Growing up my family was no different. We all loved Bolognese night, and my mama’s sauce recipe was exquisite.
One of my favourite things to do on a Saturday morning is to head out to my local Farmer’s Market. I live in London, one of the biggest cities in the world, and yet I am just a five minutes’ drive away from some amazing farmer’s markets were farmers come to sell their glorious, colourful, tasty and healing organic fruit and vegetables every week. I love to pick up all my regular goodies and essentials, and I also love to be surprised by new, beautiful and intriguing items, like purple cauliflower, edible flowers and cucamelons. I found these while raiding my favourite stall’s organic salad selection. They are tiny little cucumber, melon crosses. From the outside they look like mini melons, from the inside they look like mini cucumbers and they have the same cucumber taste with a bit of added zing.
I love the smell and taste of rose in cooking and drinks. The light aromatic hint of rose seems so exotic and makes me imagine times of decadence in ancient palaces. It’s so transporting and reminds me of my childhood in the Middle East, where cooking with rose and mixed flower essence is very usual in sweets and pastries.
These days, I mainly just drink organic rose tea to benefit from many vitamins and antioxidants to help heart health, reduce nervous tension and inflammation.
The Olive Tree Kitchen 