Sep 2019 - Jhb North

With an explosion of colour and taste,
Jamie Oliver shows just how delicious
veggie meals can be. The recipes in VEG
will, he says, leave you feeling full, satisfied
and happy – and not missing meat from
your plate. From simple suppers and family
faves to weekend dishes for sharing with
friends, from embracing a meat-free day
each week to living a vegetarian lifestyle, or
for those just wanting to try some brilliant
new flavour combos, VEG has something
for everyone ... and it’s crammed with
Jamie-style tips and tricks that will excite
the taste buds. ‘It’s all about celebrating
really good, tasty food that just happens to
be meat-free,’ he says. Penguin, R430
Compiled by: MEGAN BRETT and MPHO MOLOTO
Let’s be honest, we often have more
cheat days than we’d like to admit
just because our busy schedules don’t
allow us to cook wholesome meals.
Well those days are over ... thanks
to UCOOK. (We cook but it almost
looks like a chef did!) The meals are
wholesome and healthy, and can
be tailored to your lifestyle. Choose
from 12 seasonal recipes. (So it’s
not the same thing every week.) All
the ingredients are packaged and
delivered to you. Easy! One stand-out
dish is the Cajun trout. Creator Runet
van Heerden describes it as, ‘Charred
piquanté peppers and baby tomatoes
decorate a bed of brown and wild
rice, topped with Cajun-spiced trout
and lightly pickled cucumber.’ This,
in just 40 minutes with five simple
steps ... and oh, my does it tick all the
boxes when it comes to clean eating
and a balance of protein, veg and the
right carbs! Sign up and choose your
preferred plan. From R265, depending
on the number of people and orders a
week. Details: ucook.co.za
When two culinary forces join up to form the ultimate vegan-friendly hang-out
spot, you’d better believe the result is worth a visit (or a few). Melrose Arch’s The
Grind Coffee Shop and Hyde Park’s Honest Food Store have opened a plantbased,
vegan-friendly, healthy eatery – The Grind Greenery in Melrose Arch.
Positioned just above The Grind Coffee Shop, it stays true to the Honest Food
Store’s ethos of creating healthy, holistic and honest living. After spending a
festive evening at this new spot enjoying a delicious seven-course meal (our
stomachs were bulging!), we feel we can say with certainty that the meals are
must-trys. While the meals we sampled are not on the a la carte menu, they’re
available as event canapés and it would be an injustice not to tell you about how
delicious they are. For starters, we tried an oh-so-homely charred red pepper
and tomato soup, then a colourful plate of smoked ‘salmon’ ribbons with pickled
carrots and a papaya salad before we put our forks through The Shimeji – a
turmeric risotto with a corn puree, popcorn and shimeji mushrooms. (It paired
beautifully with Bouchard Finlayson Sauvignon Blanc.) There are many ways to
prepare the low-fat protein, tofu, and we have to tell you that the salsa verde tofu
with kale chips, crispy peas and a spring oil is probably our favourite yet. Also try
the nasu nibitashi ... Asian braised eggplant. Not ones to shy away from dessert,
we loosened our belt buckles and tucked into a blueberry sorbet shooter and
raspberry cheesecake with pomegranate seeds and edible flowers. Sweetly
decadent. There’s also a range of tasty home-made, sugar-free, dairy-free and
gluten-free snacks available downstairs at The Grind Coffee Shop. Mmm. Brekkie
starts from R50 and lunch from R70. Details: thegrindgreeney.co.za or follow @
thegrindza on Insta and Facebook
September 2019 Get It Joburg Northern Suburbs 27