Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Healthy, happy, Vorovoro yummy! Part two

Bula sia Tribe. As promised, here is the second installment of ‘Healthy, happy, Vorovoro yummy!’, your guide to healthy and delicious food inspired by the Vorovoro kitchen.

This week I have given you the know how for Vorovoro Crunchy Salad and topping ideas, a quick interview with our kitchen Mum Frances and Ten Healthy Tips from Team Kana.. I hope you find this useful and experience the delights of a happy, healthy tummy soon!

Vorovoro crunchy salad...a vegetable vitamin hit!

It doesn’t get fresher than a crunchy raw vegetable salad. Lettuce may be crunchy but it is seriously lacking in nutrition. In Vorovoro crunchy salad we use shredded English and Chinese cabbage instead and other finely chopped raw vegetables so you can still enjoy your crunch but get a vitamin hit at the same time! Have a look in your fridge and in your cupboards and see what else you can add to make it delicious.

We like to make a big bowl of this salad for lunch every day and finish it up with our evening meal, adding more vegetables if we need to. You can adjust the flavour mix to suit any meal and its piece of mind for us in Team Kana that our Tribemembers are getting a healthy dose of fresh raw vegetable power with their meals.

In our crunchy salad we have…

• Shredded English cabbage
• Shredded Chinese cabbage
• Grated carrot
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped cucumber
• Sprouted mung beans

Sometimes to keep the Tribe sweet we’ll pop in some chopped dates or raisins and some grated coconut.

For you, our off island Tribe experiment with the bounty of tasty veggies you have available to you. How about….

• Diced green beans / mange tout
• Grated apple
• Shredded red cabbage
• Nutritious leaves like spinach, rocket, watercress
• Chopped broccoli (oh how I miss it!) or cauliflower

Dressing ideas

We use soy bean oil here on the island but you lucky people can use some olive or seed oils to make your dressing. For a very quick and easy salad dressing, we like to crush a clove or two of garlic and stick it in a recycled jam jar, add oil, some lemon juice or cider vinegar, a pinch of salt and black pepper and lastly some crushed fresh herbs. We make the dressing first so the garlic and herbs can flavour the oil while we prepare the rest of the food. Put your dressing on at the last minute to keep things crispy. Again, experiment with the flavours you have in your kitchen and create your own dressing. It takes only a minute and is really satisfying. If you make too much no worries (sega na lega), it will keep for more than a week unrefridgerated and you can change the flavours to complement your next meal.

Sprinkling seeds onto your salad is a great way to increase your Omega oils; keeping your brain and body healthy, not to mention the taste factor! We collect the seeds from our pumpkins, dry them in the sun, roast them in a pan and then sprinkle on and we also have been known to sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds or yummy Gomashio seasoning on top! (See last time for recipe)

Now for a quick word from Frances in the Vorovoro kitchens.

“So Frances, how do you keep your family healthy?”

“To be a healthy family you can grow your food at home in the garden. Then you just need to buy flour and sugar and some other things. We plant the vegetables in our gardens and then we just go and get it when it is ready. We plant cassava, bele, yam and sweet potatoes. Vegetables are very tasty. Everybody in the family eats plenty of vegetables!”

“Pawpaw curry is a real favourite lunch for the Tribe especially Jim our Project Director, did you know that Pawpaw is one of the healthiest fruits in the world?”

“Aiy aiy! Wow …We are very lucky people here then on Vorovoro. We eat pawpaw every day with nearly every meal. The Tribemembers have some with their porridge and also pawpaw jam. We use it in the kitchen in curry, cake and juice and even chutney. The trees grow all over the island. Anywhere you spread the seed it will grow. Eat more pawpaw because it is very tasty and will make you happy!”

“What is your family’s favourite healthy meal?”

“Our favourite food to have in our family is fish lo lo. This is when we cook fish in coconut milk. You can put some green vegetables with the coconut milk also to make it healthy. This dish is really tasty. We sometimes make this dish for the Tribemembers on Tui Tuesday for the meal after Sevusevu. If a Tribemember doesn’t eat fish then we will cook them eggplant lo lo.”

Vinaka Frances. You always look after our tummies in the Vorovoro kitchens!

Top ten healthy kitchen tips from the Team Kana Kitchen crew
• Save the cooking water from your vegetables and use as stock to flavour other dishes.
• Have some green vegetables as a side dish with every meal.
• Add plenty of different vegetables to your curries, stews and other dishes.
• Eat some fresh fish several times a week.
• Have fruit a few times every day. We have some with our breakfast, mid-morning and sometimes in the afternoons also…what lucky people we are!
• Use whole meal flour in your baking.
• Have a crunchy vegetable salad with your meal.
• Only eat when you are feeling happy. If you are not feeling happy, close your eyes and think of Vorovoro!
• Cooking is fun and a good way to relax. Cook a tasty meal for your family and friends!
• Eat your meals at the table or Fijian style sat on a mat with your family or housemates. It is a great time to share news, stories and laughter.
• Give your leftover food to the chickens, if you don’t have chickens get some from a Battery Hen Rescue Center. Chickens will provide you with eggs everyday and are fun to have around.

A big vinaka vaka levu to Kini and Frances for their ideas and all the delicious, healthy meals they cook for us in the Vorovoro kitchens.

I will be back soon with more healthy tips, Pupu Epeli’s food and gardening advice and more tasty Vorovoro recipes.

Moce for now you lovely people!
Jenny