Fermented Foods

Shop Manager Justine looks at the health benefits of the fermented foods sold at Get Loose. She is assisted by Diabetes Specialist Dietitian and best selling author Chris Cheyette. 

What is a fermented food?

Fermented foods have been around for thousands of years. Valued for preserving the longevity of food. They are foods and drinks that have undergone a process where micro-organisms break down food components, like sugars, into other products like organic acids or alcohol. This can improve a food’s taste, texture and provide health benefits. 

Why are they good for us?

This food group has a number of health benefits associated with them, including;

• Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease

• Lower blood pressure

• Type 2 diabetes prevention 

• Obesity prevention 

• Reduced inflammation 

It is thought that the micro-organisms creating the fermentation produce bioactive peptides, vitamins and other minerals in a form more available to the body. Improving blood health, nerve function and immunity. 

Many fermented foods contain friendly bacteria such as lactobacillus. These are a pro-biotic, helping populate the gut bacteria. 

Gut bacteria 

Our microbiota is unique to each individual person so there is no probably no ideal combination of the potential 1,000 bacteria types that can be inside us. Most people have 100-150 types at a time. It is sobering to think we contain 10x more microbial cells than the number of other cells in the human body!

A huge amount of research is being done on this emerging area, but it is thought that the amount of fibre, and variety of foods eaten, play a significant role in our gut health. 

Fermented foods sold at Get Loose 

• Raw milk yogurt from Kappisan Dairy 

• Cheeses from Bath Cheese Company 

• Kefir from Hook & Son. A fermented yogurt drink with a slight fizz. 

• Tempeh - a meat alternative made from fermented soya beans. 

• Kimchi - a Korean staple made from fermented cabbage and raddish.

• Sauerkraut - fermented cabbage. 

• Miso (brown & white options) - a paste made from fermented soya beans. 

Also… 

Sourdough bread from Frizzante (the Hackney City Farm cafe) or Growing Communities. 

References

https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/fermented-foods.html?dm_i=1M7S,6QO70,NO56LW,QXIHT,1

https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/give-your-friendly-gut-bacteria-a-helping-hand.html

Oven Roasted Chickpeas

Oven roasted chickpeas

Adapted from the original post by The Bethnal Greens, with permission. Follow them on Instagram @the_bethnal_greens

Roasted chickpeas are a popular snack all over the Middle East and beyond. If you are looking for a healthier, cheaper and zero waste snack for your, movie night, office desk or long walk this might be for you.

Using alternative spices such as cumin and chilli could be used along with garlic or onion powder to make for equally delicious alternatives. 

This is a great one to do when you are using the oven for something else as they don’t take up much space.

Ingredients:

• 200g dried chickpeas (or 2 tins drained) *

• 1 tbsp smoked paprika *

• 1 tbsp salt *

• 3 tbsp olive oil *

  *ingredients from Get Loose

Method:

• If using dried chickpeas, soak chickpeas overnight and boil for 45-60 mins.

• If using tinned chickpeas, simply drain and wash

• Preheat the oven to 200° C

• Spread the chickpeas onto reusable kitchen towel or napkin, pat dry

• Once dry, place the chickpeas into a mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix well

• Return the chickpeas onto a roasting tin lined with baking paper or silicone mat. They should be spread out enough so that they are on a single layer.

• Place in a preheated oven for 15 minutes, then give the pan a good shake to move the chickpeas around and roast for another 15 minutes, shake once more and bake for a final 10-15 min. Keep an eye on the chickpeas for the remaining 5-10 minutes to avoid any burning.

• Can be eaten hot or cold. Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Why not tell us in the comments how you like to make your oven roasted chickpeas?

Cinnamon Sultana Oat Cookies

Cinnamon Sultana Oat Cookies

Adapted from the original post by The Bethnal Greens, with permission. Follow them on Instagram!

Ingredients: (approx. 20 cookies)

• 1 cup dates (roughly 10 dates) *

• 1 cup jumbo or rolled oats *

• 1 cup oat flour (1 1/4 cup of rolled oats ground into a flour - you can use your blender) *

• 1 cup sultanas *

• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon *

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp salt *

• 2 rounded tablespoons of peanut butter (or any nut or seed butter) *

• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (we used rapeseed oil) *

  * ingrediants from get Loose

Ingredients from Get Loose

Method:

• Soak the dates in warm water while preparing and measuring other ingredients (approx. 10 min)

• Blend 1 1/4 cups of rolled oats in a food processor, blender or mini chopper.

• Place the oat flour along with the rolled oats, sultanas, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well

• Discard the soaking water from the dates and place them in the food processor along with the vanilla, oil and nut butter and blend to a paste.

• Add the paste to the dry ingredients and mix well to incorporate

• Place the cookie dough into the fridge for about 10 minutes, this will allow the oats to absorb some of the moisture and a colder dough is easier to shape

• Preheat oven to 180C

• Roll golf sized balls of dough and place them on a lined baking tray and then press down on them using the palm of your hand into discs roughly 2 cm thick

• We baked ours for around 15 minutes and they came out nice and chewy with a little crunch, but ovens can vary so keep an eye on them after the first 12 min or so checking to see that the cookies are not burning at the edges

• The cookies will come out moist and may seem underdone, but they need to cool completely before they harden. If, like us, you find it hard to wait, go ahead and have a few, they are delicious when warm.

The recipe could also handle a variety of alternative ingredients and combinations, for example sour cherries, walnuts or chopped dried apricots. Let us know what you tried in the comments below!

Customer Spotlight - Em

We are lucky to have many customers who are passionate about the shop and love sharing what they make with our products. Em is very active on Instagram and regularly tags the shop in her recipes. She very kindly took some time out to tell us her story. Do check out her blog and instagram account, details below. If you would like to feature in our customer interview section please drop us a private message or email. 

My name is Em and I am passionate about creating healthy recipes, mainly from seasonal ingredients and with as little waste as possible. 

I have been really curious about natural ways of rejuvenation for almost 15 years now. Food is a huge part of this. I feel passionate not just about nutrition and my own personal health and well-being but about the well-being of our planet too. 

Rainbow lunch - oyster mushrooms patties, I used Get Loose carlin peas in them; pumpkin hummus- I used Get Loose chickpeas; oven roasted veggies

I am not a zero-waste guru at all. I am just someone trying to make a little difference. I also love a good challenge, such as using up all my leftovers and reinventing them into a new dish. As my main interest is in rejuvenation, I find it fascinating to see how much food I can use for my body care and skincare. Making DIY beauty products is fun. Especially when I can use things that would otherwise end up in my composting - fruit skin, plant milk pulp, coffee grounds, to name just a few. 

I have a blog at myredcarpetbody.com where I am sharing some of my recipes and I will post about my skin care too (including all my zero-waste recipes).

My zero waste pumpkin and beetroot soup with pumpkin skin and old sourdough croutons. I used Get Loose pumpkin seeds in this one.

How did you find out about Get Loose?

One day I visited the City Farm in East London out of nostalgia while passing by. My daughter, who is now 19, grew up going there regularly with me. I saw Get Loose and I loved it. It’s amazing how much you can fit in!

Why do you love shopping with us?

Prices are great and you have a lovely selection of everything I use. I can find a lot of my staples there. I love the atmosphere too. There is always some interesting conversation going on. I love this - random strangers engaging in conversation and exchanging smiles.

What are your favourite products?

I love to experiment with things I haven't tried before - I bought dry fava beans and carlin peas a few times now and it was fun to create recipes with these. I also love your brazil nuts, UK-grown quinoa and tofu.

Creamy pumpkin baked macaroni. I used Get Loose’s little whole grain macaroni (cornetti).

Do you have a favourite winter recipe you would like to share?

I don't think I have a favourite. I love experimenting and I love to please my mood with my food too. What my favourite is today will not be my favourite tomorrow. I have most of my recipes on my Instagram account @myredcarpetbody and some on my website (adding more soon). 

What would you like to see Get Loose stock in the future?

Noodles (rice, buckwheat, udon), seaweed and rice paper. Amaranth and puffed amaranth would be nice, too. I would love a selection of oils like pumpkin seed and sesame seed oils. I am, however, aware of your limited space so I am grateful for whatever you have.

Warm quinoa salad with beetroot dressing. I used Get Loose quinoa for this.

So how does Get Loose compare on price?

It can be a challenge for any small independent shop to compete on price with the supermarkets. They can buy in much larger quantities and sell some of the most popular items at cost price to attract customers in. Sometimes called a “loss leader”. 

Our competitive edges

• Fully organic, wild or foraged food items.

• We research products to ensure they meet the shop values so you don’t have to. 

• Providing many items packaging free and the rest plastic free.

• Being able to buy what you need not what the packet dictates, reducing waste.

• A lovely shopping experience.

• Friendly helpful volunteers.

• Helping change the food system from the inside.

• Supporting small independent producers / cooperatives wherever we can. 

• Reducing the temptation to buy highly processed foods (we don’t stock any!)

BUT we appreciate that for many people price is the most important factor in choosing where, and how, to shop. We also want to be honest about our prices. Our website does not currently have all the prices listed due to the amount of work involved for our volunteers in ensuring this is kept up to date. If there are items you would like to know the cost of, in advance of visiting, please do contact us by email, or social media, using the icons at the bottom of the page.

Note: all prices for this article were correct as of September 2019. Supermarket own brand organic range used where possible, or closest branded alternative.

How to shop plastic free

Our Assistant Manager Justine looks at why and how to shop plastic free. Shared from her blog littlegreenduckie.com

The problem of plastic waste

The scary fact is that every piece of plastic ever made (unless burnt) still exists in some form. That’s 60+ years of plastic and counting. With only 5% of plastic actually getting recycled into something new. This fact goes part way to explaining how 8 million tonnes end up in the oceans each year! The Blue Planet II documentary has brought the impact of all this plastic to the mainstream consciousness like nothing I have seen before. Meanwhile in our supermarkets, almost everything is wrapped in plastic. The #PlasticFreeAisle campaign, by A Plastic Planet, is hoping to change this, campaigning for every supermarket to have a plastic free section. Their research shows 9 out 10 people would like to see this a reality. Here in the UK the government has just pledged to reduce “avoidable plastic” and increase R&D funding to find alternatives. I don’t want to wait for these things to happen, so I have been shopping thoughtfully to reduce the amount of plastic (and other unnecessary packaging) from my food shopping.

How does it work? What do I take?

No need to buy anything new. Save packaging you already have e.g.; jars, takeaway containers, bottles, egg boxes and paper bags. For fruit and vegetables make simple bags from old fabric, search online for inspiration. Or buy from Get Loose, made by volunteers with upcycled fabric. I wish that Onya UK had not stopped making their “weigh bags”. Luckily Australian Onya Life have them, and I have relatives who can bring them for me! But if this is not an option Lakeland have started selling very similar ones made in Sweden. Consider if you need leak proof containers for buying meat, fish, or deli items.

Packaging free shops have scales to tare (check) the weight of containers, before filling. This will be deducted from the final weight of your item.

Benefits of packaging free;

• Reduces the amount of waste I am putting in to my landfill and recycling bins.

• Less packaging means less CO2 emissions from creating it and transporting it.

• Saving me money, only buying what I need.

• Cutting down food waste, less leftover bits of packets to be forgotten.

• Supporting my local economy. Research on spending by local authorities shows that for every £1 spent with a small or medium-sized business 63p stayed in the local economy, compared to 40p with a larger business. I find the biggest range of packaging free items are from small independent retailers.

• I have got to know the people who work in my favourite shops. This I feel connects me to my community. It’s easy for them to remember me with my own bags, jars, boxes and bottles.

History & food safety

Remember the bulk bins in the 1980’s? These had the potential safety issues of cross contamination and poor stock rotation. New gravity dispensers mean that these issues are now avoided.

It might be an obvious point, but it is my responsibility to make sure my containers and bags are clean and suitable for the food.

Zero Waste!?

The term “Zero Waste” is used a lot on blogs and social media. People proudly show the tiny amount of landfill (trash) waste they have produced in a year or more.

I feel that this can often seem so unachievable to many people that they don’t see any point in trying to change anything. It can create a lot of “green guilt” and even conflict within the home environment. Everyone’s personal circumstances and local facilities are different. I feel that any reduction I can make in my own waste is a positive achievement. On the other hand I can see that the term makes a great hashtag and call to action.

One thing that the tiny mason jars of “trash” don’t show is the plastic waste up stream. By this I mean the waste that the manufacture, growth, or production of your item has created. This is another reason to buy food that is as un-processed as you can. Here in the UK I bulk food stores currently struggle to get pulses, spices, nuts and seeds delivered plastic free. However the amount of plastic used is dramatically less than the same food packaged in much smaller bags for consumers. So it might not be the full answer, but it’s a step in the right direction. Change takes time, and more people asking for it.

Start here…

Feeling inspired to make some changes to your shopping habits? Try some of these easy wins;

• Vist Get Loose! Check out the opening hours, the product list and plan your trip.

• Use your own bags for fruit and vegetables.

• Politely tell staff to use your leak proof containers, for deli, meat and fish purchases.

• Explore your local shops for zero waste offerings, and ask them to consider stocking more loose items.

• Add what you find to the Zero Waste app, or Facebook groups, to help others.