Ask the biased part of your brain to conjure up an image of what a vegan looks like. Now cancel it and take a look at Anette Martinsen on the cover of A Recipe for Health. You will instantly know why prejudice is, in fact, irrelevant, ridiculous and foolish.
Radiating the very health she advocates, Martinsen sets out to serve a treat – without the dairy, egg, sugar, wheat and meat that we all assume make life worth living. From her Limassol kitchen she is targeting people whose lifestyle is cramped by strict diets, or suffering from all kinds of food allergies and intolerances. But she is also trying to seduce you and me and others like us who wimpishly swing between good intentions and overwhelming regrets. How? By solemnly promising that none of her recipes will taste like cardboard.
After all, these recipes have had their guinea pigs over the years. Husband Peter and children Tomas, Tristan and Jade have sat down to them time and again, assisting in the process of experimenting and perfecting, and it is with their stamp of approval that they leave the domestic laboratory. It seems the family happily endured months of flapjack baking until mum settled for “the perfect combination – not too dry, a little crispy on the outside but a little bit gooey on the inside”. Young Tomas went even as far as designing and laying out the book itself, and if it has a somewhat homemade feel to it then so be it: it is for better to reflect its origins inside an ordinary family, dealing with its own challenges of difficult food allergies.
But is it ultimately all too good to be true? Can there really be cake without sugar, ice cream without cream and chocolate eggs without chocolate? Would it be not like living an ersatz life? And what would Nigella do for a living?
Well, frankly, that’s Nigella’s problem. For here is a chance of going to bed having digested the evening meal instead of carrying a bloated bellyful of gourmet delights all the way to next morning and beyond. More importantly, you won’t feel cheated: perhaps a chocolate brownie it ain’t, but a carob cake with spices and raisins sounds darn good in its own right; so does the carrot cake with fructose, rice flour and almonds.
As if she knows our propensity to panic, Martinsen lays out the desserts first, with promises of waffles and pancakes, macaroons and biscuits, apple crumble and chocolate truffles. There are also snacks and dips and soups and bakes, breads and drinks, condiments and pickles, jams and sauces, curries and vegetable dishes. All that’s needed now is a dose of soul-searching, a pinch of commitment and a whip-up of courage to change our greedy ways.
A Recipe for Health is available from English bookshops across Cyprus or directly from the author [email protected], www.anettemartinsen.com (21.35 euros)
Recipe
Apple Crumble
Ingredients for the filling
6 or 7 green apples peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
6 tablespoons fructose
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a handful of raisins
Crumble ingredients
200g spelt or rice flour
150g organic margarine
175g fructose
Method
l In a bowl mix fruit and fructose together, then place in a pyrex dish.
l In a separate bowl, place all crumble ingredients and start mixing together, then use your fingers for a few minutes to get it crumbly.
l Use 2 knives to ‘cut’ the crumble.
l Place the crumble mixture on the fruit.
l Bake in a preheated oven at 180? C for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
