At the moment, it is still warm and beautiful in late summer, so a delicious salad recipe comes in just at the right time. Joelle is generally our “salad queen”, but nothing is more boring than boredom on your plate – she is really philosophical, isn`t she?
Be vibrant and wonderful.
That is the motto of our salad today, because with the many beautiful colors of red pomegranate, pink radish, orange-red carrots, fresh green salad and the wonderful crispy fried coconut tofu not only make our hearts shine but also our intestines. Speaking of Mr. bowel … he deserves a closer look.
Did you know that you should eat the widest possible variety of foods for an optimal intestinal flora?
Our intestines are covered with microorganisms that help us digest food, stay healthy (given the fact that we feed the right bacteria), protect us from bad bacterial growth, stimulate our intestinal activity, ferment fibers, produce essential amino acids … The list could go on indefinitely, but you already get the core point: a lot stands or falls with our microbiome. And just imagine: our intestines contain between 10-100 billion bacteria, fungi and viruses. They want to be fed. With good food. And I’m sorry to say that – unfortunately neither fast food nor sugar counts.
But it’s not that big a witchcraft to do something good for the little roommates. Just as we like diversity on the plate, they also like variety. Make sure that you include at least 30 different plant-based foods per week (ideally more, but enough for the beginning) in your menu. These can be different types of vegetables or fruits as well as herbs, flowers or honey. The important keyword is: diversity.
Calories are tiny animals that sew clothes tighter at night – or that improve the absorption of nutrients in the intestines.
Our intestines also play a huge role in our weight regulation. It is known from numerous studies that some bacterial strains occur more frequently in overweight people, so-called Firmicutes, while the Bacteroidetes predominate in people of normal weight. What sounds complicated is basically very simple: bacteria from the Firmicutes strain produce a lot more enzymes that help our intestines break down carbohydrates, in other words: the bacteria of the overweight person get significantly more energy from the same amount of food than they do with people of normal weight. With serious consequences. However, this can change quickly if the diet is adapted, because bacteria are extremely quick in adapting to changes.
Good nutrition for Bacteroidetes and other desirable colleagues:
- resistant starch
- polypnehols of grapes, cranberries and many other fruit, especially herries
- omega-3-fatty acids (wild fish and linseed oil)
- red wine
- apples and other foods containing fibres
- cocoa
- dark chocolate
A quick word about resistant starch. This occurs when you cook rice, pasta or potatoes and let them cool down overnight. This has the effect that a certain percentage of the starch molecules contained are rearranged and are therefore no longer available for our digestive enzymes. Quintessence: the same amount of potatoes is packed with fewer calories and is also a great food for our little helpers.
With this in mind, we wish you all the best and a good appetite, which we hope will not go away when you think about the fact that there are still 10 trillion mouths to feed. It’s just good that they are so small, otherwise they would “eat the last hair off our heads”.
We are super delighted if you try our creations and would love to see them. Link us on Instagram with @bisstacchio and use the hashtag #bisstacchiorecipes.
vibrant salad with coconut tofu, pomegranate and mint
Ingredients
Salad base
- 150-200 g mixed green salad e.g. lamb lettuce, young spinach or young leaves of red beet
- 2 small (red) carrots
- 1 pomegranate
- 4 radishes
- 2 tbsp. red beet sprouts
- 2 tbsp. cress sprouts
- 2 tbsp. dried coconut chips
- some mint leaves
Dressing
- 6 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 lime
- 2 tsp. mustard
- 1/2 tsp. honey
- salt, pepper
coconut tofu
- 200 g natural tofu
- 50 ml coconut milk, full fat
- 40 g coconut flakes
- 30 g almond flour
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Instructions
- Wash the salad, the carrots and radishes, peel the carrots if necessary and cut them into strips (this is best done with a vegetable peeler), cut the radishes into slices.
- Half the pomegranate and get all the yummy seeds out.
- For the dressing, squeeze out the lime and then stir all the ingredients together until everything is nicely mixed. Season with salt and pepper.
- Mix the salad with the dressing, arrange in two bowls and garnish with pomegranate seeds, carrots, radishes, the beetroot and cress sprouts, coconut chips and mint leaves. Set aside for a moment and go ahead with the tofu.
- Place the tofu between two layers of kitchen paper and squeeze out the remaining liquid with light pressure. If necessary, repeat this process until the paper towel stays dry.
- Quarter the tofu by cutting once vertically and once horizontally. Leave the tofu like this and cut it twice diagonally so that you finally get 8 triangles.
- Prepare the bowls with the almond flour, as well as the coconut milk and coconut flakes, which you mix with 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- First roll the tofu in almond flour, then dip in the coconut milk and then twist in the coconut flakes.
- Heat the pan with a tablespoon of coconut oil and fry the tofu pieces for about 2-3 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Place them on the salad and enjoy.
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