August 23, 2018

Antipasto, Simple delicious nourishment

Antipasto is such a great food. Its super versatile and really delicious. Its also one of the best warm detox foods you can have! So if you want a winter cleanse.. this is the one.. The word Antipasto is Italian and means to eat before the meal! Its also called antipasta and antipasti. All meaning the same thing!

We love nourishing and healing food combos. One of our favourites is going with the seasons and eating foods according to ancient Chinese seasonal elements. The winter element is water. Yes, good old flowing water. So eating with water involves foods that are water like. They are purifying, flowing and cleansing with rich minerals and easy digestion.

These foods are often the ones with hues of water like colours in them, so we are thinking blues, purples and also foods from water. Water season is about hibernation and going light on yourself. So, this involves going light on your digestion. They are also foods that grow quickly and in wintery environments such as fungus, yes lots of mushrooms. Foods that have easily been preserved from the summer bounty, so dried and roasted vegetables. And wintertime foods need a good dose of feel good mood food!

My book The Magic of Food as Medicine explains to you all the health giving benefits of fruits vegetables and herbs. So make your food your medicine. This is a good one because its so full of fresh and nourishing ingredients. Rainbows of colour on the platter, seasonal goodness and nourishing combinations make antipasto one of the best wintertime foods!

Antipasto is a great winter food. It meets all of the requirements of water foods with a super nurturing and nourishing addition of filling our wintertime mood food criteria!

Mood foods are foods that fill your belly and feed your emotions. They are foods that help you feel good and its great when this category of food can be met with vegetables! and garlic bread, of course!

Lets share this super recipe with you now.

Dom's antipasto recipe.

What you need

1 large eggplant, aubergene

2 red capsicums

1 cup of cherry tomatoes or three whole tomatoes

1 red onion

1 cup of mushrooms

1 cup of your favourite olives

200 to 300grams of your favourite cheese. ( we used French goats cheese and some fresh goats cheese)

Olive oil

Lemon juice

sea salt

spices and herbs of your choice

garlic

ginger

A big baking dish

a serving platter or two. ( we used two)

How to make our antipasto recipe.

Slice up all of the vegetables to roughly the same size. I like to slice them in long slithers for the eggplant and capsicum. I always leave the cherry tomatoes whole. I slice the mushrooms if they are large, or leave them whole. Depending on the vegetable and what I want the final presentation to look like on the platter. Be creative.
roll the vegetable s in a combination of olive oil , sea salt and different spices and herbs. I put each vegetable in a different spice, garlic, herb combination , so that the different flavours come through in the eating.
Place these all on the large baking dish in sections. Ie capsicum, tomatoes, egg plant etc in their own section. Place in oven preheated to 175 C ( heat it first) and allow tp bake for 40 minutes.
Take it out and allow to cool on the bench before assembling onto platters and adding the cold olives, cheese and any other additions you want to add.

We made a simple garlic bread to go with this and served as an entree. It also makes a fabuloius platter for parties and celebrations. This is also wonderful as a detox food. Make a platter and enjoy your wintertime nourishing cleanse.

Our next workshop is on July 29th in Maleny. We will be making Herbal medicines for skin care and wellness. This includes skin conditions and arthritis and pain relief.

We will be at Queensland Garden expo and Splendour in The Grass Global Village in July too.

Our facebook pages are Dominique Livkamal and Medicineroom http://www.facebook.com/dominiquelivkamal

http://www.facebook.com/medicineroom

On instagram we are medicine_room

Check out our awesome herbal skin balms, oils and nectars online. We love making these for you and if you are out and about we will be at Eumundi Markets on Saturday. We are also offering our Herbal Body Therapy in Caloundra each week. Love and light.

Have a great day

Love and light Dominique Livkamal

MHlth public health/health promotion Bch Hlth Sc/ Complimentary medicine ND, Nutritionist, herbalist . Adv Dip Nat. Dip Journ. Kundalini yoga teacher, Zen Thai Shiatsu, student of life and wellness advocate. Founder Medicineroom. High vibes on the mountain, herbal first aid services and programmer for Woodford Folk Festival.... always working with love, gratefulness, light and through the divine grace!

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