challenge - salicylates

“Salicylates are a family of plant chemicals found naturally in many fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and spices, jams, honey, yeast extracts, tea and coffee, juices, beer and wines. They are also present in flavourings (e.g. peppermint), perfumes, scented toiletries, eucalyptus oils, and some medications. (Aspirin is a member of the salicylate family).”

So it’s in a lot of stuff and it makes stuff interesting. So this challenge is even more interesting than the milk one because you don’t just get to add one ingredient, you get to add a whole bunch! You have to have at least 6 serves of salicylate foods each day for seven days, where one serve is about ½ a cup or 100g. How hard could that be? As long as you stay within the guidelines – not that hard.

The vegetables included in this challenge: asparagus, beetroot, carrot, chinese vegetables, lettuce (except iceburg), marrow, parsnip, potato (red), pumpkin, snow peas, snow pea sprouts, sweet potato, turnip, alfalfa, artichoke, capsicum, chilli, chicory, corn, cucumber, endive, onion, radish, water chestnut, watercress and zucchini.

Other things included in this challenge are things like some apple juices, peppermint tea, some jams, your standard herbs and spices and honey.
The real challenge for me was how to get as much variety in as possible, without over eating or wasting food. This was going to be a breeze though. I didn’t really have a problem with vegetables and I used to have peppermint tea every day for 2 years. So I was set.

What I found really interesting about the week I was doing this challenge was how much I came to appreciate the basic and natural flavours of some of these vegetables.
Snow peas are sweet, crunchy and juicy. They are great in a salad and with chicken or just on their own. They don’t need much work, just lightly steamed or blanched. Butternut pumpkins (also known as squash – though squash here in Australia is also another vegetable) are also full of flavour on their own. They are sweet too, but in a different way, not sugary. Roasted with a tiny bit of oil and salt really enhances the flavour. Perfect with roast chicken and great in a salad. They do have a strange texture that feels a bit starchy and stringy, but soft and warm, softer than sweet potato.

I realise it's obvious that honey and maple syrup are two different products with two different flavours. Honey is thicker and a lot sweeter. Maple syrup is lighter and does not go very well in quinoa porridge. I quite like maple syrup, but it was nice to have honey again.

Plain corn chips may not seem that interesting, but they were a nice break from plain potato chips. Corn is just so much more interesting than celery and is even better than butter beans and borlotti beans.

So this week was great, I got more interesting salads, I got my peppermint tea back, and I got to add flavour to my chicken. Everything was perfect, until I got to day seven.