Tag Archives: protein

Picture of two glass trays with vegan lupin spread

Lupin seeds spread

nutrition, , , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

The forgotten brother of the soya bean

Choosing to eat plant-based food simultaneously offers opportunities to break free from the unhealthy traditions of our traditional animal-based eating habits.

Lupin seeds, like soybeans and other beans, are part of the immense family of legumes.
Here is an interesting recipe for a preparation to garnish bread or toast that is both spreadable and sliceable thanks to the presence of coconut oil. In terms of flavour and texture, you can think of the result as a tasty alternative to cheese.
Personally, I believe the plant-based movement would benefit from stopping trying to imitate animal products. Because by doing so, it classifies itself as second-rate, as Ersatz, as if everything plant-based can only be an approximate copy of animal originals. While it is actually the other way around. When the first animals appeared on earth, it had long been covered by a lush, green carpet of plants. Plant-based cuisine has its own intrinsic value and immensely varied palette of flavours. It is time to rediscover and appreciate it.

What ingredients do you need?

  • 200 g dry or about 550 g ready-to-use cooked lupin seeds
  • 100 g extra virgin coconut oil
  • 6 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
  • 4 tablespoons of water or beans’ cooking liquid
  • 1 tablespoon tamari (soy sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • also 1 tablespoon of white miso
  • and then 1 or half a teaspoon extra sea salt (optional)
  • extra black pepper (optional)

The pressure to imitate cheese at all costs has the side effect that often too much salt is used in recipes for so-called “cheese substitutes”. Lupin seeds from a jar are usually already pickled. Tamari and, to a lesser extent, miso also give extra salty flavour. That’s why the last extra whole or half teaspoon of sea salt is only included as an option, which I found in the original recipe for this spread. Moreover, I myself always use reduced-salt tamari.
It is in the interest of your health to keep your salt intake on the low side.

Preparation method

First method, with ready-to-use cooked lupin seeds

  • Drain the brine from the lupin seeds and rinse them under running water.
  • Melt the coconut oil au bain marie over hot water.
  • Add all the ingredients into a food processor with an S-shaped blade and grind to a smooth yet firm texture.
  • Taste and adjust salt and pepper levels if necessary.
  • Transfer to a container that you can close with a lid and store in the fridge.

Second method, starting from dry lupin seeds

This is my favourite. The white-coloured, dry lupin seeds are preferable to pickled, ready-to-use seeds in terms of price and packaging situation.

  • Soak the 200 g lupin seeds for 24 h in very ample water. Their volume at least doubles.
  • Cook the soaked lupin seeds (without salt!) with some seaweed and savory for about 40 minutes in a pressure cooker. This yields about 550 g of cooked lupin seeds.
  • Scoop the cooked lupin seeds from the cooking liquid and let them cool.
  • Have some cooking liquid aside as an alternative to the tablespoons of water.
  • Melt the coconut oil au bain marie over hot water.
  • Add all the ingredients into a food processor with an S-shaped blade
  • Grind until smooth yet firm.
  • Taste and adjust salt and pepper levels if necessary.
  • Tranfer into a container that you can close with a lid and store in the fridge.

Done!
Of course, you can also cook the lupin seeds in a classic saucepan with a lid until tender, but that takes much longer (up to an hour and a half!). A pressure cooker is much more economical to use. It is well worth the investment if you often eat beans. The lupin seeds change colour during the cooking process, turning a deep warm yellow.
This vegetable spread keeps for up to 3 weeks in the fridge.

Taste test and health verdict

This will appeal to true cheese addicts. The result has a salty, slightly oily taste and is very filling. So this could be of interest to those having a hard time kicking off fatty, animal-based cheese.
The spread is high in protein and fat, making you feel satiated very quickly. Yet a caveat: it is the coconut oil that provides the rich fat content. Coconut oil is, quite wrongly, often praised to the skies in terms of nutritional value. But coconut oil, is made of almost exclusively saturated fats, of which it is best not to consume too much. Yes, coconut oil has a slightly better fatty acid profile than animal saturated fat. But beware, it is still better to use in moderation.
Thus, I would be more inclined to incorporate the lupine seeds into a spread with no or less added fats, along the lines of this tomato hummus.
Indeed, opting for plant-based eating offers opportunities to simultaneously break free from the unhealthy habits of our traditional animal-based eating traditions.
Picture of lupin seeds in brine and lupin flowers

Lupin and lupin seeds

Lupin flowers are sometimes known because of the brightly coloured red to purple over yellow to white torch-shaped flowers planted in gardens as ornamental flowers. In agriculture, lupin is grown as a so-called green manure crop. Because the plant absorbs nitrogen from the air and stores it in its roots. Thus, it enriches the soil. Lupin flour is made from the seeds, which is then often wasted as animal feed. For human consumption, you usually find pre-cooked lupin seeds in brine in jars in the trade. The dry seeds are harder to find. Nevertheless, there is a hopeful renewed interest in growing this valuable plant species.
As already mentioned at the bottom of this recipe for tomato hummus, legumes are good meat substitutes. With the caveat that their amino acid profile is not the same as that of animal products. Their lower levels of the amino acid methionine you can compensate for by simply eating cereal products. Legumes and cereals complement each other perfectly. And you don’t have to eat them together in the same meal.
Lupin seeds and soybeans, however, are an exception to the above rule. They are very well balanced in terms of amino acid profile on their own.
Lupin seeds are very rich in protein: some 35 g per 100 g of dry seeds. But of course you don’t eat these seeds dry. Cooked lupin still contains 15 g of protein per 100 g of ready-to-use product.

Lupin seed spread, per 100 g of product

Values are approximate and without the extra teaspoon of salt, which is optional.

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
949 kJ/227 kcal 9,8 g 1,1 g 15,5 g 11,2 g 13,7 g 3,0 g 0,13 g

Participate in our cooking classes:

Cooking Workshops

Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:

Read more about plant-based food

Find out about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:

Check out our yoga classes here:

View our full range of yoga classes

Picture of a cup of hummus with tomato

Tomato Hummus

nutrition, , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

Pulses with some extra punch

Chickpeas are perhaps the most popular type of pulses. They are widely eaten around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East. They form the basis of hummus, a creamy puree eaten as a dip or as a sandwich spread.
For classic hummus, cooked chickpeas are ground into a smooth mixture with sesame paste (tahini), olive oil, some spices, salt and lemon juice. But you don’t have to stick to that one classic recipe. The variations are endless.
Below is a simple recipe for tomato hummus. The dried tomato gives a deeper colour and also a bit more punch to the hummus. However, you could just as easily use other vegetables instead of tomato.

The ingredients for about 600g of tomato hummus

  • 460 g jarred or canned chickpeas or 200 g dry chickpeas
  • 45 g dried tomato or about 80 g dried tomato marinated in oil
  • 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • a teaspoon of garlic powder
  • a teaspoon of curcuma
  • a generous amount of black pepper
  • optionally fresh green herbs such as coriander, parsley or chives
  • maybe a few tablespoons of water to make the end result creamier

This is how to prepare the hummus

First method: starting from dry tomato and dry chickpeas

I personally prefer to work with dry chickpeas and dry tomatoes in bulk. This is much more economic in terms of price and avoids unnecessary packaging to be wasted.
Taste the dried tomato to estimate the salt content. Loose, dried tomatoes often already contain a good deal of salt. In that case, you can add the soaking water of the tomatoes to the hummus for which no extra salt is needed.

  • Chop the dried tomatoes into pieces.
  • Soak them overnight in about 150 ml of water. They will double in volume and weight.
  • Keep the tomato pieces and their soaking water.
  • Soak the chickpeas for 24 h in plenty of water. They also double in volume and weight.
  • Drain and briefly rinse the chickpeas.
  • Bring them to the boil in 3 to 4 times their volume of water, without salt.
  • Scoop off the foam floating on top with a skimmer until the boiling water remains more or less clear.
  • Then close the lid of the steamer pan.
  • Cook them under pressure for about 35 minutes.
  • Let the chickpeas cool.
  • Put the chickpeas, the tomatoes with their soaking water and the other ingredients into a food processor with an S-shaped blade.
  • Blend them into a creamy, orange puree. Add a little extra water if necessary.
  • Divide the hummus over glass jars and store in the fridge.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can also cook the chickpeas until tender in a conventional pan with a lid. Then count on a cooking time of one hour.

Second method: dried tomatoes in oil and pre-cooked canned chickpeas

You can also use dried, or rather semi-dried tomatoes from glass jars. These are dried tomatoes that are usually preserved in sometimes spicy oil and are therefore a bit more moist. Taste again for to estimate their salt content. You don’t need to pre-soak these marinated tomatoes first. Just drain them briefly.
Canned or jarred chickpeas, in liquid, are already pre-cooked. You don’t need the liquid from the packaging. You can cook them for an extra five to 10 minutes if necessary.

  • Chop the tomatoes.
  • Drain the liquid from the chickpeas.
  • Cook the chickpeas in water for another 10 minutes if necessary.
  • If so, leave the chickpeas to cool.
  • Put the chickpeas, the tomatoes with their soaking water and the other ingredients into a food processor with an S-shaped blade.
  • Blend them into a creamy, orange puree. Add a little extra water if necessary.
  • Divide the hummus over glass jars and store in the fridge.

Done!
The hummus thus obtained will keep for up to 10 days in the fridge.

Are chickpeas full-fledged meat substitutes?

Chickpeas alone? The answer is no.
Cutting meat and other animal products from your menu and replacing them with legumes alone? Read below to find out what to consider.
Good legumes include:

  • Beans of all shapes and colours
  • Lentils in all possible shapes and colours
  • Lupin seeds
  • Soybeans and products derived from them such as tofu and tempeh

Soybeans and lupin seeds contain a pretty complete amino acid profile that is quite close to the amino acid profile of animal proteins.
In contrast, other beans and lentils are richer in the essential amino acid lysine, but contain little methionine. If you were to eat really only beans and lentils, it could potentially lead to imbalances.
Some examples of good grains, provided they are as complete (whole grain) as possible are :

  • Wheat
  • Rye
  • Spelt
  • Unicorn
  • Oats
  • Barley
  • Rice
  • Corn
  • Millet

Good pseudo-grains are:

  • Buckwheat
  • Quinoa
  • Amaranth

Within this group of grains and pseudo-grains, it is quinoa that has the most balanced and complete amino acid profile.
The cereals and pseudo-grains, with the exception of quinoa, actually have a good amount of methionine. However, their lysine content is low compared to animal protein. Right opposite to legumes!
So legumes and cereals complement each other perfectly. So does this recipe’s hummus make a good pair with wholemeal bread, for example.

What vegetable protein do I eat best?

Apply the following two golden rules:

  • Eat soy and lupine products and/or quinoa liberally and regularly.
  • Eat grains and pseudo-grains combined with legumes.

There’s no need to combine grains and pulses in one and the same meal.

Tomato hummus, approximately per 100g product

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
781 kJ/187 kcal 21,3 g 4,5 g 8,9 g 0,9 g 7,2 g 5,5 g ?

Participate in our cooking classes:

Cooking Workshops

Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:

Read more about plant-based food

Find out about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:

Check out our yoga classes here:

View our full range of yoga classes

Picture of a wholegrain bread with soy

Wholemeal bread with soy

nutrition, , , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

Bread with extra plant power

Bread. It’s so ingrained in the food cultures of Europe, Africa, the Near East and India. According to some currents in the food world, it’s not such a healthy food after all. You would be better off soaking and then cooking cereal grains rather than eating them in a rather dry, baked form like bread.
However, bread has unbeatable advantages in terms of taste and practical considerations.
There’s nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread filling an entire room, is there! In our childhood, when we came home from the bakery, the irresistible outer slices would disappear into our mouths before the bread had even reached its final destination.
Besides, bread is easy and practical. Once the bread is baked, you always have something on hand that, with a few appropriate toppings, makes for a satisfying meal in no time.

Wrapless and circular

I’ve baked bread throughout my adult and independent life. Most often with yeast, more rarely with sourdough, and occasionally varieties without yeast or sourdough. There have been ups and downs. Depending on my determination to make healthy bread myself, for less money and with better ingredients.

In recent years, I’ve also started making my own soy milk, from soy beans. This initiative was partly motivated by my dissatisfaction with soy milk cartons. Because I wanted to drink soy milk without packaging. I got the hang of it, but I had to find uses for the large quantities of soy pulp resulting from the soy milk manufacturing process. I just couldn’t throw them away! This meant I had to set up a circular process: the waste or residue from one process becomes the raw material for another process.

One of the results is soy bread: an almost wholemeal bread that contains soy pulp as an additive. The bread recipe below, meanwhile, has been perfected and is worth sharing.
What’s more, I’ve learnt to appreciate the manual kneading of dough as a very soothing, almost meditative process, which has made me (re)discover the importance and pleasure of working with my hands. And all this in an increasingly digital world! I used to dread it and think it was a waste of time.
Finally, bringing extra protein to bread is a good thing if you’re making your way through life as a vegan.
Two hands holding a loaf of bread

What ingredients are needed for a loaf weighing around 680g?

  • up to 100 g soya pulp
  • 350 g organic 75% wheat flour (T80)
  • 50 g organic wholemeal rye flour
  • one teaspoon sea salt
  • one teaspoon whole cane sugar
  • and one tablespoon ground flaxseed
  • 200 to 210 ml water
  • half a packet of fresh baker’s yeast (about 12g)

If you don’t have or don’t want to use rye flour, take a total of 400g of 75% wheat flour.
Instead of fresh baker’s yeast, you can also use dried baker’s yeast. In that case, take the quantity for 500g of flour.

Here’s how to make this delicious bread yourself

  • Mix the yeast in the (lukewarm) water and leave to stand for a while.
  • In a large mixing bowl, bring together all the dry ingredients and the soy pulp, and mix, with a fork or whisk.
  • Pour the water with the yeast into the dry mixture.
  • Mix the resulting dough with a fork and then knead by hand for about five minutes.
  • Roll the dough into a ball, place it at the bottom of the bowl and leave it to rest and rise for an hour to an hour and a half, covered with a kitchen towel.
  • Then remove the leavened ball of dough from the bowl, and now knead more intensely for about 10 minutes.
  • Shape the dough into the shape of your choice, or place it on the bottom of a baking tin lined with greaseproof paper.
  • Let rise again for an hour and a half to two hours, covered with a kitchen towel.
  • Preheat the oven to 210°C (200°C in a hot air oven).
  • Insert the bread into the oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
  • After baking, remove the bread from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

This will give you a firm, semi-complete loaf that is both tasty on its own and delicious toasted.
Kneading techniques have been the subject of a wealth of literature. I’m not an expert on the subject. During the second kneading phase, I press the dough flat each time with forward arm movements. I then fold it into a square and press it flat again, for a total of about 10 minutes.
The dough should not stick to your fingers. If it does, it’s too wet and it’s better to add more flour. Sprinkle it over your kneading surface and the ball of dough.

Is bread good for your health?

Rather than rejecting bread by definition, it’s worth looking at the circumstances:

  • Who eats the bread?
  • What type of bread are we exactly talking about?

For physically active people or children and young people in an active growth phase, healthy bread can be consumed without reservation. Classic wholemeal or semi-whole wheat bread contains mainly carbohydrates. These provide fuel for our bodies. It also contains a good proportion of plant proteins, including gluten. It also contains a good deal of fibre and minerals.
Wholemeal (or semi-complete) bread is therefore suitable for people who consume a lot of energy. People who take little exercise, or those who are older and have a metabolism that consumes less energy, would do well to eat bread in moderation to avoid obesity in the long term.

Besides, bread and bread are two things. In principle, you only need four ingredients to make bread: wholemeal (or semi-wholemeal) flour from one or more cereals, water, a leavening agent such as yeast and a little good quality salt. That’s all there is to it. Most industrially-produced breads in supermarkets contain up to 20 different ingredients, including sugar. You can often see this on the labels. These ingredients don’t make the bread healthier, but they do make it sweeter and keep it longer on the shelves. What a classic fresh warm bakery uses in its bread is, frankly, often hard to guess. So buy your bread from a health food store or make it yourself, as in the recipe above. Use only good quality essential ingredients, preferably of organic origin.

Almost wholemeal soya bread, per 680g loaf

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
1671 kJ/2191 kcal 314 g 1,3 g 22,5 g 3,1 g 74,3 g 51,80 g 5,00 g

Almost wholemeal soya bread, per 100g of product

Energy Carboh. Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
246 kJ/322 kcal 46 g 0,2 g 3,3 g 0,45 g 11,0 g 7,6 g 0,7 g

Participate in our cooking classes:

Cooking Workshops

Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:

Read more about plant-based food

Find out about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:

Check out our yoga classes here:

View our full range of yoga classes

Picture of a tofu marinade and its ingredients

Three tofu marinades

nutrition, , , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy, and plant-based

It’s the marinades that make the tofu

Plain, white tofu has virtually no flavour. You can see that as a drawback, or as a positive. Because it allows you to add any flavour to this healthy supplier of plant protein. Moreover, it allows you to add structure to your cooking habits.
If you set aside half an hour at the weekend to dice a large block of white, firm tofu and make a few different marinades, you’ll immediately be set for the week.
Here are three examples of marinades. Besides, there is no brake on your creativity and you can replace these marinades with your own favourite combinations.

Oriental style marinade with peanut butter and sesame oil

This sweet and spicy marinade is excellent with rice or noodle dishes, accompanied by grilled and steamed vegetables.
Ingredients:

  • 200 g firm white tofu
  • 2 tablespoons of peanut butter
  • one tablespoon of soy sauce (tamari or shoyu)
  • 1 tablespoon of vinegar (e.g. apple cider vinegar)
  • 2 tablespoons maple, rice or agave syrup
  • Two tablespoons of sesame oil
  • 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
  • A good chunk of ginger, grated or very finely chopped

Greek style marinade with olive oil and lemon

This fresh and sour marinade is ideally suited as a substitute for feta cheese in salads, but is also very tasty slightly warmed up.
Ingredients:

  • 200 g firm white tofu
  • 2 tablespoons of nutritional or noble yeast flakes
  • Two tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Spicy Mexican style marinade with chilli and paprika

A pungent, spicy marinade for lovers of spicy Mexican flavours. Ideally to use in wraps, with beans, vegetables and, for example, slices of fresh avocado. These are best eaten hot, by briefly frying the tofu with the marinade in a pan.
Ingredients:

  • 200 g firm white tofu
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon plain white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder or two finely chopped or pressed cloves of garlic
  • sea salt to taste
  • 1 teaspoon paprika powder
  • 1 teaspoon of oregano

This is how to proceed:

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir in the cubed white tofu. Transfer the marinated tofu into glass jars, for instance with a span seal. This marinated tofu will keep for 1 week in the fridge.

Nutritional info: white firm tofu from the brand The Hobbit, per 100g product.

This gives a good indication of the nutritional values for firm tofu. Tofu from other manufacturers may of course differ from these exact values.

Energy Carbohydrates Sugars Fat Sat. Fat Protein Fibre Salt
503 kJ/120 kcal 2,1 g 0,5 g 6,1 g 1,0 g 13,5 g 1,4 g 0 g

Is fermented tofu better than regular tofu?

Fermented tofu looks like ordinary tofu but has undergone a fermentation process. As a result, the flavour is slightly acid. Two advantages:

  • the tofu is slightly more digestible
  • this tofu has a more distinct flavour

In fermentation processes, bacteria grow and produce acids and enzymes. The enzymes trigger the digestion process, the acids provide stability and favourable acidity for the digestion process.
Fermented tofu is ideally suited for cold preparations with tofu, for example as an alternative to animal feta cheese. Great solution if you are vegan yourself or are visiting a friend or relative who does not eat dairy products.

Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:

Have a look at more articles about nutrition, health and plant-based foods:

Read more about plant-based food

Read more about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:

Check out our yoga classes here:

View our full range of yoga classes

Split pea soup ingredients

Easy split pea soup

nutrition, recipes, , ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and vegan

Anyone on a purely vegan diet would do well to keep a close eye on the proportion of protein. Peas and split peas are an excellent and very cheap source of high-quality plant protein with a rich and varied amino acid spectrum. They also contain a lot of complex carbohydrates and a good deal of valuable fibre.
Dream food, really!
What could be cozier and heartier than a good bowl of steaming hot pea soup in the cold season? And you can do that right from breakfast!

What you need for about 1 litre of freshly made soup:

  • 150 gr split peas
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 onion
  • eventually a piece of green celery
  • one to one and a half tablespoons of good olive oil
  • Herbs such as: cumin seed, savory, fennel seed …
  • pepper and salt to taste

You can also add vegetable stock cubes to give extra flavour to the soup, but I’m not a fan of that myself.
Picture of split pea soup with its ingredients

Step by step

  • Allow the split peas to soak in water for a few hours until they are swollen
  • Rinse them in a sieve under running water
  • Gently heat the olive oil on low fire, sprinkle in the herbs (cumin seed, savory, fennel, or others, according to personal taste …) and let them fry softly in the oil for a few moments allow them to release their flavour
  • Add the finely chopped onion and carrot and fry until they become a little glassy
  • Pour in the split peas, stir and briefly fry
  • Pour 1 litre of water over the vegetables, bring to the boil
  • The cooking time depends on the type of pan: approx. 35 minutes in an ordinary pan. If you use a pressure cooker, reduce the cooking time to about 15 to 20 minutes.

Extremely important

When cooking legumes, add the salt only after the cooking process.
This applies to sea salt, salted soy sauce as well as any salty stock cubes or stock in powder.
Finally, you might add some extra pepper to taste and finely mix the soup with a handheld mixer or in a blender.
Serve nice and hot!

Enjoy this delicious, simple, fortifying soup with its respectable protein content!
Nutritional values split peas

When is the best moment to eat protein?

Opinions differ.
Some people claim that you benefit more from protein in the morning and at noon than in the evening. They claim it would be best to go to bed “light” with a digestive system that has finished its day job so that all the energy can be put into recuperation at night.
On the other hand, the night is precisely the time when protein synthesis and muscle recovery and building also take place. So according to other authors, it is a good idea to include protein in your last meal so that it enters the bloodstream at night and is available for protein synthesis.
That seems to make good sense.

Picture of visual fat loss progress

Halfway through

health, , ,

Four out of eight weeks of fat loss challenge are already a thing of the past.
And, how are things going?

What I’m actually doing

(What is it all about?)
I want to make a conscious change to my body.
To do so, I am stepping out of my comfort zone.
I put myself into a conscious calorie deficiency of about 20% for a period of 8 weeks.
In addition, I am following a progressive power training programme.

The first experiences

The centimetres are disappearing, slowly but surely.
I was not overweight in the classic sense of the term, and yet I saw and felt that I was walking around with too much fat. Even in places where I would rather not see it. For me these are the legs and in the waist.

In figures there is little spectacular to report compared to those who really want to get rid of a lot of overweight or centimetres. And then: that’s the way it should be. Every body is unique. Comparing with others often marks the end of joy. So it is better to look at what’s on your own plate.
Each Monday I can take off with a lower starting weight.

Physically speaking, it was not easy at first:

  • There were days when I felt weaker and my voice sounded weaker too
  • The first weeks my sleep was significantly worse in quality
  • The higher protein intake did not feel completely OK during the first weeks. Now it does.
  • The power training sometimes felt heavy, especially in combination with eating less

Forward … march !

Mentally I feel strengthened. The challenge, together with the corresponding assignments, diagrams and tables:

  • help me to structure
  • challenge me to be more thorough
  • confront me with my inferior sides, such as laziness, procrastination, lack of consistency
  • Inspire me to clean up and get along with business in other areas of my life, just like “cleaning up” my body
  • challenge me and make me curious to learn more and understand more
  • ensure that I also make commitments in other areas of my life

Emotionally it is sometimes a bit difficult:

  • For the first few weeks I was often in a bad mood, I was walking on the tips of my toes
  • A couple of times I succumbed to the temptation of eating more than I was allowed that day, and then I was disappointed and a little angry with myself
  • Some existential doubts are still gnawing at me. Like: Why am I doing this? Isn’t this just belly-button staring?

The first benefits show up and let them feel

There is a clear visual result and from the inside it feels very different.

  • Round my waist and on my belly the underlying muscles become visible
  • I get more strength in my legs and mobility in my hip joints
  • I am more stable
  • In my yoga practice I feel the extra space and the lightness around my belly

There is, physically speaking, less ‘stuff in the way’.

The most important learning points

What I have learnt about myself going through this process:

  • The power of calorie management and monitoring the ratio of the three macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats)
  • All excess weight and fat can be traced back to “too much”. Systematically eating too much than you need in relation to your activity level
  • Even with a full stomach, just after a meal, I am still hungry for “something extra”. At that moment it is neither physical hunger nor a necessity. So what is it? What do I do with it?
  • I understand now that I generally drank too little water. Drinking more water is more beneficial than I thought

What I am not yet on good terms with

The whole protein story is still dubious. As part of these eight weeks of conscious fat loss, with the combination of calorie calculation and moderation plus the strength training, I am also expected to eat a lot of extra protein.
Is that really necessary? Or is that part of the famous protein myth? The myth that protein deficiency lurks around every corner. While the reality is, that the majority of westerners take in far too much protein … . To be continued.
I now play the game according to the rules of the challenge.

What the real challenge will be

Maintaining this beautiful result (which will only be better in 4 weeks) and to stay ahead of the seemingly random fluctuations of the past.
Counting the calories requires work and discipline. I find it very useful. It pushes you with your nose upon the facts, it’s done with guessing, fantasizing and wet fingerwork.
But maybe I won’t always be able to make time for it. So maybe I would like to evolve to a slightly more intuitive way of eating.
And still be able to maintain and master body weight and body constitution, without daily food tracking.

I realize this is about much more than just making a selfie of progress. It’s a picture of the inside as well as the outside. Changing your body equals changing your mind and vice versa.

A sweet spicy dish with seitan

Sweet and spicy seitan

nutrition, recipes, ,

Yoga Kitchen – Simple, healthy and vegan

Thousand year old source of plant protein

Have you switched to a vegan lifestyle and feel nostalgic for something like “meat stew”?
Then you must consider seitan.
Seitan has been known in oriental and more specifically Japanese cuisine for centuries. It is made by subjecting wheat flour to a series of consecutive rinsing procedures. The starch washes out and what remains is the wheat protein. Some people also make it from gluten powder. Gluten is the protein found in wheat and in plenty of other cereals. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. It is simply a powerful plant based source of protein.
Today, it is available in many forms as a standard meat substitute in organic shops and increasingly in other shops as well. Pre-cut in slices, in pieces or minced.

“Stoverij” is a typical Belgian (Flemish) dish people traditionally prepare with beer.
Seitan lends itself very well to this. But you can really do anything with it.
Take a look at this example of an oriental style spicy-sweet preparation:

For about two servings of vegan stew:

  • 200 gr seitan “suprème” or ordinary seitan
  • 50 gr onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 150 gr red and/or yellow bell pepper
  • 3 full tablespoons red madras curry paste (or any other curry paste of your choice)
  • a teaspoon of cumin seed
  • a teaspoon of mustard seeds
  • 2 tablespoons tamari, or sea salt to taste
  • 200 ml of water
  • One tablespoon of wheat flour or spelt to thicken the sauce. Corn starch (maizena) or kuzu will do the trick just as well.

Picture featuring a seitan dish and its ingredients

This is how to prepare:

Ready-to-use seitan does not require any pre-treatment. If it is a large piece of seitan, cut it into smaller pieces with a pair of scissors or a good knife.

  • Chop the onion and garlic and cut the sweet bell pepper into pieces.
  • Let a tablespoon of olive oil warm up in a pressure cooker or in an ordinary pan over a low heat.
  • First sprinkle the herbs in the warm oil. The oil absorbs the flavours.
  • Add onion and garlic and briefly fry.
  • Stir in the pieces of seitan and fry briefly.
  • Add the curry paste and the tamari and mix well.
  • Add the bell pepper and mix with the seitan.
  • Finally pour in the water, close the pan.

Irresistible

Preferably use a pressure cooker. This allows you to retain much more of the nutritional value. Also, the cooking process will take much less time and energy.
In a pressure cooker the whole thing is ready after about 15 minutes of simmering under steam pressure.
Count on 25 minutes for a classic pan.
Afterwards you can thicken the sauce by diluting the flour with some cooking liquid and then adding it to the preparation.
That’s it.
I guarantee you will be tempted to eat it all at once, it’s so tasty! The “suprème” version of seitan simply melts on the tongue.
Of course, nothing stops you from adding other vegetables or using other or additional herbs. Your taste is the norm.
Enjoy it fully !

Gluten or no gluten

Because more and more people are allergic to gluten, a phenomenon whose cause is exclusively attributed to gluten, eating wheat protein is more and more generally discouraged.

Personally, I think it is wrong. It is true that gluten, like other proteins, for example from animal origin, is relatively hard to digest. But if you are healthy and do not suffer from gluten intolerance, there is no reason to avoid it.

What is also true is that modern wheat has evolved genetically over the decades and is therefore no longer the same as the wheat that our ancestors knew. That may also have an impact on the digestibility of modern wheat. There are other cereals on sale in organic shops that are close to the structure and composition of the primeval wheat. Examples are kamut and spelt or emmer.

Thirdly, modern industrial bread is not as fair as the bread of yesteryear. For tasty, basic, fair bread you only need 4 ingredients:

  • flour (ground cereal)
  • water
  • yeast or leaven
  • (sea) salt

Modern industrial bread sometimes contains up to 20 different ingredients, mainly to make it leaven and ready to bake faster, and to influence its flavour and aroma.

Leaky gut

There is certainty that gluten, when it passes undigested or only partially undigested through the intestinal wall, cause damage further down the body, including allergic reactions.
On the other hand, there is no conclusive indication that the same gluten is also responsible for the deterioration and degeneration of the intestinal wall and the protective intestinal flora. For the latter may be due to other causes. Such as a diet that is too monotonous, with too many refined carbohydrates, too much added sugar, too many bad trans fats, too little fibre and, above all, industrially processed foods. The intestinal flora wears out, the intestinal wall slowly leaches out due to a lack of minerals and loses its protective effect: as a result too large openings appear. This is called “leaky gut” syndrome.

Read more about plant-based nutrition and health:

Read more articles about nutrition, health and plant-based foods:

Read more about plant-based food

Read more about yoga and yoga classes in Schaerbeek:

Check out our yoga classes here:

View our full range of yoga classes

Picture of green protein smoothie

Green protein bomb

powertraining, ,

The big issue for people considering switching to plant-based food is: will I get enough protein?
Meat, fish and eggs are “easy” sources of protein, which have a relatively high protein content.
But ethically speaking, they are very tricky.

A plant-based diet has everything to provide us with sufficient protein, and is respectful of animals, people and the planet.

Let’s cite a few good sources:

  • peas, including soya, peas, and the dozens of varieties of beans and lentils
  • nuts and seeds
  • cereals (such as wheat, oats, rice, rye, barley, millet, amaranth …)
  • pseudocereals (such as quinoa, buckwheat)
  • vegetables (yes! Every vegetable contains protein)
  • algae and cyanobacteria such as spirulina
  • vegetable protein powder (of soy, rice, hemp, pea, pumpkin seed, sunflower seed or combinations thereof)

Anyone who takes a balanced and sufficiently varied plant diet will under no circumstances suffer from a protein deficiency.

And what about active sports and power training ?

But if you’re a strength athlete, or like me, have stepped into a fat loss challenge, along with purebred meat eaters and omnivores ? A challenge that expects you to eat almost twice as much protein as normal ? Up to more than 150 grams a day ?
How about that ?
Can you do that?
Can you provide meals and snacks that contain much more protein and at the same time keep your fats and carbohydrates under control?

Yes, it’s possible.
Let’s be honest: you’ll also need an addition of vegetable protein powder.
But that’s the same for meat and fish eaters. They only use concentrated milk protein, also called whey.

Here is an example of a vegetable “protein bomb”, which I prepared as a separate meal. With lots of greens, so also rich in vitamins and minerals.

These are the ingredients for the smoothie:

  • 200 gr peas
  • 70 gr spinach
  • 25 gr mixed vegetable protein powder of hemp, pumpkin and sunflower
  • 3 gr spirulina (about 1 teaspoon)
  • 3 gr chlorella (about 1 teaspoon)
  • about a tablespoon of peanut butter
  • 150 ml of unsweetened calcium-fortified soy milk

This was for the topping:

  • 70 gr fresh white or red currants
  • 100 gr soybean cottage cheese alternative (Provamel or Alpro)

Energy and macros

This one nutritious and filling meal with a total of almost 600 kcal contains no less than 49 grams of vegetable protein.
That’s a bunch!
The vegetable protein powder accounts for 14.6 grams of that. The rest comes from the other ingredients.
Macronutrients
You could also use the same combination in smaller quantities as a nutritious “post-workout” snack.

Plant Power

I was relieved.
Yes, this kind of special diet for sports or fat loss it is also feasible with only vegetable ingredients.

It’s time we built a society on the power of plants instead of the misery of animals. Don’t you think so?