Easy dishes are the best on a regular weekday when you are limited in energy and don’t feel like spending too much time cooking. After a long day, all you want to do is make something that requires little fuss but still have a healthy meal for lunch or dinner that has a proper amount of nutrients in them. Both of these dishes are packed with flavour and spices that taste delicious! With the beetroot rolls, you could make the buckwheat/quinoa beetroot mixture in advance making the dish ready in under five minutes. The garlic and ginger infused soup is all about chopping a few ingredients and letting it simmer gently as the flavours merge together. Both dishes are vegetarian, but you can add any protein to the mix to make it more suitable to your liking. For example, I sometimes add in left over chicken to the soup and fried tofu, pulled pork or salmon to the burrito sushi- rolls.

Healthy Beetroot Rolls

• 1 cup cooked buckwheat
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 large beetroot
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 sweet potato
• chili flakes

Filling

• Baby spinach leaves
• shiracha mayonnaise
• grated raw turnips & radish
• fried egg slices

Begin by making the beetroot pureé. In a medium heated sauce pan, add a bit of olive oil and the chopped beetroot, sweet potato, shallot and garlic. Stir gently for about 10-15 minutes until everything is cooked. Add salt, ground nutmeg and pepper. Add a bit of water to the pan midway of the cooking process, so nothing sticks to the bottom and provides a bit of steam. Once cooked, puree with a hand-held blender into a smooth paste. Check for taste

Mix the beetroot purée with the cooked buckwheat and quinoa and use this as the spread, as you would for “rice” when making sushi rolls. Spread a large scoop of the mixture on one side of the seaweed. Then add some shiracha mayonnaise, grated veggies of choice (I used raw turnips and radish), spinach and fried egg slices.

Wrap the roll into a tight cylinder and cut in half from the middle. Sprinkle with chili flakes and serve with light soy sauce.

Cleansing Spicy Veggie soup

• 1/2 cup cooked buckwheat
• 1/2 cup chopped red cabbage
• 1/2 cup chopped kale
• handful harriot beans
• 5 garlic cloves (grated or finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons grated ginger
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 zucchini sliced
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon shiracha sauce

In a medium heated sauce pan, add some sesame oil and the ginger and garlic. Stir gently and then add the chopped vegetable and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock, turmeric, soya sauce and shiracha. Let it simmer gentle for about 10 minutes so the flavours intensify and lastly add the cooked buckwheat almost right before serving.