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KEYWORDS: HEALTHY FOOD

Oodles of

boodles

Year of the Rooster?

More like the year of

boodles! While those-who-

come-up-with-food-trends might have

exhausted all options when it comes to

zucchini and caulifl ower, the trend of

replacing processed carbs with vegetables

is staying. The new subs are pumpkin

spiralised into ‘boodles’ (butternut

squash noodles); eggplants turned into

‘chips’; and sweet potato sliced and

popped into the toaster for ‘toast’.

Do the

char-char

You’ve maybe seen

the face masks

(Dermalogica, for

one) and the toothpaste (Colgate,

for another), but now eating charcoal

= a red-hot trend. It’s been used for

thousands of years as a natural detox

as it soaks up toxins in the body. The

form found in food and drink is activated

charcoal, made from natural sources

such as coconut shells, and you can

expect to fi nd it in anything from tonics

and cocktails to eye-catching black

burger buns, savoury wafers and

biscuits, macaroons and ice-creams.

On the drinks front, Pressed Juices

(pressedjuices.com.au) is leading the

way with their Black Lemonade tonic

made with activated coconut charcoal,

alkaline water, lemon and cayenne.

One person’s

trash

...Is tomorrow night’s

dinner? You might

be horrifi ed to know

Australians bin $8-10 billion of food

every year, but luckily there’s an

increasing movement towards fi nding

ways of tackling the issue – like pickling

and soup-making with leftovers (visit

lovefoodhatewaste.vic .gov.au for recipes

that use up the most commonly thrown-

out foods). You could also ease your

conscience by purchasing wonky goods

at grocery stores such as Harris Farm

Markets (harrisfarm.com.au) – they have

an ‘Imperfect Picks’ range of fruit and

veg that might look weird on the outside,

but are perfectly fi ne on the inside. This

helps grocers take more of the farmers’

crops (did you know 25 per cent of

crops don’t even leave the farm just

because they look a bit ugly?!), which

in turn helps reduce food wastage.

Bowled over

At the time of going to

print, #buddhabowl was

featured in more than

74,500 posts on Instagram.

Buddha (or nourish) bowls combine

the principles of Chinese medicine –

a kaleidoscope of greens, raw or roasted

veg, proteins (like tofu or fi sh), grains (such

as brown rice or quinoa), seeds and topped

with spicy or creamy dressings. Don’t be

intimidated by the Insta crowd though; you

don’t need to be a Canon pro to build your

own nourishing bowl of goodness.

Sustainably

fi shy

Love cooking with fi sh

but concerned about

overfi shing, modern

farming practices and the impact they

have on our oceans? You’re part of a

growing trend. In response to consumer

feedback, brands are listening up and

delivering more certifi ed sustainable fi sh

products – think John West, Tassal,

Coles and even Ikea. Given seafood is

such a big part of the Aussie diet (we eat

around 25kg of seafood per person every

year, FYI), this is good news. All you’ve

gotta do? Look out for the Marine

Stewardship Council (MSC; msc.org)

blue label on your packaging. You can

also download Australia’s Sustainable

Seafood Guide app (free, iTunes and

Google Play) for choosing seafood (and

restaurants) responsibly on the go.

Cottage cheese

comeback

It was the slimmer’s food

du jour back in the ’70s

and, although it’s never left

our supermarket fridges, this nutritious

dairy food is creeping onto our plates

again, thanks to our hunger for high-

protein foods. Dating back to the ancient

Greeks and Egyptians, cottage cheese is

made by curdling milk and draining away

most of the liquid whey, resulting in

a fresh-tasting dairy product that’s high

in protein and low in fat. It’s also a source

of vitamin B12, phosphorus, calcium

and ribofl avin, among other valuable

nutrients. Get your serve by spreading it

onto your sandwiches and toast, dipping

some crackers in for an afternoon snack,

or dolloping it into quiches.

Cross-breeding

veggies

If you haven’t already

spotted them in your

local Coles, kalettes are

a British-bred cross between kale and

Brussels sprouts, look like mini cabbages

and taste milder and sweeter than

Brussels sprouts. When they hit Australia

in 2015, kalettes were the fi rst new veggie

launched in the country in more than

a decade (since broccolini!). They’ve

inherited a bunch of nutritional benefi ts

from their parents – like vitamin K, folate,

vitamin C and carotenoids, so blanch ’em,

stir-fry ’em, roast ’em, or grate ’em raw!

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