Adzuki pumpkin casserole

Dried adzuki beans look like small kidney beans and are available at health-food stores and some supermarkets. This is a good dish to eat regularly if you suffer from blood-sugar imbalances.

Serves 4–6

1 cup dried adzuki beans

1 tablespoon sesame or rice bran oil

1 large onion, chopped

2cm piece fresh ginger, sliced fine or grated

2½ cups water

800g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut in bite-sized pieces

1½ tablespoons shoyu or 2 tablespoons miso

1 spring onion, finely sliced

Soak adzuki beans in water overnight.

Drain and rinse adzuki beans.

Put oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and sauté onion until it begins to soften. Add the ginger and cook for several more minutes. Add adzuki beans and water. On top of beans, spread pumpkin pieces. Finally, add shoyu or miso.

Bring to a boil, turn heat down to medium (beans need a fairly strong boil to cook properly) and cover.

Check after about 20 minutes that there is still plenty of liquid around the beans. After about 30 minutes of cooking, beans and pumpkin should be cooked. Gently mix stew to combine and serve garnished with spring onions.

Feijoa nut crumble

This warm but raw dessert is a wonderful way to enjoy feijoas, which thrive in a subtropical climate. For an alternative, replace the feijoas with 1½ cups of frozen berries. Heat the crumble just enough to warm through to preserve the fresh flavour of the fruit.

Serves 6

CRUMBLE TOPPING

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup dates, pitted and chopped

½ cup walnuts

½ teaspoon ginger powder

pinch of sea salt

FRUIT BASE

500g feijoas

2 cups grated apple

1/3 cup raisins

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

small pinch of ground cloves

pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 120°C.

To make topping, place all ingredients in a food processor and process until mixture has a fine texture. Transfer to a separate bowl until required. (There’s no need to wash the food processor before making the fruit base.)

To make fruit base, halve feijoas and scoop out flesh with a spoon into a large bowl. Chop into small chunks.

Put 1 cup of grated apple, raisins, cinnamon, cloves and sea salt in a food processor and process for a few seconds until raisins are mostly puréed.

Transfer mixture to bowl containing feijoas and remaining grated apple. Mix gently with a large spoon.

Place fruit mixture into a shallow ceramic or ovenproof dish and spread out evenly. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.

Before serving, heat for 30–40 minutes until warmed through.

Serve with fresh whipped cream or soft-serve banana ice-cream.

• Recipes from ‘Real Fresh Food – healthy meals for busy people’ by Anna and Roger Wilde, published by New Holland Publishers.