We don’t know about you, but for us sunny weather is a time when we like to be outside as much as possible enjoying the fresh air. That also means as little time as possible stuck in a kitchen! Today we prepared an easy lunch that kept us in the kitchen for only 5 minutes and that we were then able to leave to cook for another 15 minutes.
The base of today’s meal was zucchini, which (surprise!) is also a fruit! This one came from one of our gardens, but it was picked a bit after its best-before date. As a result, it was very big and already contained visible seeds. The seeds from the zucchini then are the first of the four seeds that are in this dish; the others are poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, and buckwheat.
Poppy seeds are traditionally associated with dessert foods in many places, but that didn’t stop us using them today in this savoury dish! The poppy is an interesting plant that provides us not just with tasty seeds, but also opium and morphine, very important medicines. That being said, these can also be used to make heroin, which is very dangerous and unfortunately quite addictive. As you may know, professional athletes are often tested for drugs to ensure that they are not cheating; some cases exist where individuals have been said to have morphine in their blood when they actually only consumed a slightly larger amount of poppy seeds. Though such low concentrations have no effects on the body, they are still enough to be picked up by the tests. If anyone is afraid of failing a drug test, rinsing the poppy seeds before using them will remove the dust that is responsible for this effect.
Recipe, preparation and price per meal
|
Quantity(g or ml) |
Price for 4 person (EUR) |
|
|
Main dish |
|
|
|
Olive oil |
50 |
0,30 |
|
Poppy seeds |
60 |
0,90 |
|
Sunflower seeds |
70 |
0,35 |
|
Buckwheat |
200 |
0,49 |
|
Zucchini |
1000 |
1,49 |
|
Salt |
2 |
0,00 |
|
Together |
3,53 |
As with so many good things, this dish began with the holy coupling of olive oil and a saucepan. We then added our poppy seeds to give them a quick roast. Sunflower seeds were then added and roasted as well before thin slices of zucchini were introduced to the pan.
After a few minutes of this, we added buckwheat, some salt, and a cup of water. Buckwheat takes about 15 minutes to cook properly, so the whole dish gets cooked quite nicely. If you were cooking for less time, it would be wise to use ground poppy seeds as this breaks the hard shells and releases the nutrients and aromatic compounds inside them. Since ours got cooked so thoroughly though, this was not a problem.
Today’s lunch was a record low price; we paid just over 2€ for a lunch for 4 people (try finding a restaurant that beats that!). That being said, we saved money since we picked the zucchini from our garden. Our table here takes into account the market value of a zucchini and thus has a higher price, but it still comes out to less than 90 cents per person.
Nutritional value
|
With lunch consumed quantity |
% From daily needs |
||
|
Energy |
506,6 |
kcal |
25,3 |
|
Proteins |
14,97 |
g |
26,7 |
|
Total fats |
29,60 |
g |
67,3 |
|
Carbohydrates |
53,68 |
g |
|
|
Starch |
33,75 |
g |
|
|
Sugar |
7,18 |
g |
|
|
Fibers |
12,52 |
g |
50,1 |
|
Calcium (Ca) |
293,20 |
mg |
29,3 |
|
Iron (Fe) |
4,36 |
mg |
43,6 |
|
Magnesium (Mg) |
230,13 |
mg |
57,5 |
|
Phosphorus (P) |
587,13 |
mg |
83,9 |
|
Potassium (K) |
1069,27 |
mg |
53,5 |
|
Sodium (Na) |
223,97 |
mg |
40,7 |
|
Zinc (Zn) |
4,12 |
mg |
41,2 |
|
Copper (Cu) |
1,01 |
mg |
112,1 |
|
Manganese (Mn) |
2,63 |
mg |
114,2 |
|
Selenium (Se) |
20,60 |
µg |
41,2 |
|
Vitamin A |
25 |
µg |
2,5 |
|
Vitamin E |
6,93 |
mg |
46,2 |
|
Vitamin D |
0 |
µg |
0 |
|
Vitamin C |
45,15 |
mg |
45,1 |
|
Thiamin (B1) |
0,37 |
mg |
28,6 |
|
Riboflavin (B2) |
0,43 |
mg |
28,6 |
|
Niacin (B3) |
5,06 |
mg |
34,9 |
|
Pantothenic acid (B5) |
2,41 |
mg |
40,1 |
|
Vitamin B6 |
0,76 |
mg |
50,8 |
|
Folic acid (B9) |
134,78 |
µg |
33,7 |
|
Vitamin B12 |
0 |
µg |
0 |
|
Vitamin K |
18,75 |
µg |
26,8 |
As usual, the lunch was planned to cover 25% of the caloric needs of an average person. We also covered at least as much for all nutrients (proteins, vitamins, minerals…) except vitamin A, as well as vitamins B13 and D as these two are lacking from plant foods. Vitamin A is easy enough to balance out in a subsequent meal, for example one containing carrots. That being said, vitamin A consumption is more measured on a yearly scale than a daily one, so missing some today and making up another time isn’t the end of the world. In our previous meals, for example, we have often had a surplus of vitamin A. Additionally, we managed to get in a huge 57% of our daily magnesium needs, mostly as a result of the buckwheat.
Wishing you a lovely week!
The Hungry Pumpkin Team
PS: if you have any questions about today’s lunch, its nutritional value, or suggestions for future lunches, send them off to hungry.pumpkin.blog@gmail.com 🙂
